Trial of Spirit
by SK Dark Dragon
Summary: Yugi and his friends wake up in a strange new dimension, and are then forced to fight against each other by the powerful ruler of the world, the loser of each match being sent to the darkness in the realm. Will they manage to survive? -Read and Review!-
1. Chapter One: Winter Dance

Trial of Spirit  
  
Notes: ^_^ Okay! Here we go with our next story!  
  
"Usual disclaimers, we don't own YuGiOh, or the manga or anime characters. ^_~ We do own our own characters, of course, and this story. ^_^"  
  
Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed our previous story(s) and I hope you all enjoy this one too. ^_^!!   
  
***********  
  
Chapter One: Winter Dance  
  
  
  
It was a windy day in February in Domino City, Japan. The wind rustled through the bare branches of the trees outside the yard of the Game Shop and whistled against the windows like a mad storm demanding to be let in.  
  
Yugi Motou was sitting at his desk, looking down at the flyer he'd just received in the mail. Yami Yugi, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, was hovering over the boy in spiritual form, anxiously awaiting Yugi to announce what the colorful flyer was for.  
  
"A dance," Yugi said, looking behind him at his friend, blinking. "It seems the school is scheduling a Winter Dance for this Friday."  
  
Yami cocked his head.  
  
  
  
"On what occasion?" he inquired, although a dance seemed harmless enough.  
  
Ever since Yugi and his friends had gotten back from their little escapade in Egypt over the holiday break, Yami had been rather skeptical about everything, as if he were expecting another evil to pop up any second and attack them.   
  
Yet, two weeks had passed and still no sign of evil, not to anyone's dismay. Everyone had enjoyed a relaxing vacation and they were now trying to get back into the routine of waking up early and going to school. The Winter Dance flyer seemed to be the only thing of interest Yugi had managed to come across in days.  
  
"I wonder if the other's are going," Yugi mused, putting his hand to his chin thoughtfully.  
  
Yami smirked, not able to resist the temptation.  
  
"Why not call Tea and ask he if she'll go with you?" he asked casually, as if he had merely suggested peanut butter sandwiches for lunch.  
  
Yugi immediately blushed a deep crimson as he gasped, looking up at Yami in outrage.  
  
"Yami!" he cried, embarrassed as he put the flyer down on his desk. "That's not funny!"  
  
Yami shrugged, still smiling casually.  
  
"I didn't say it was, aibou," he replied with a wink. "But you know you want to go with her, so why not call?"  
  
Yugi sighed, leaning over the side of his chair. Suddenly, battling an evil from the past seemed like an easy task compared to calling Tea and asking her to the dance.  
  
************  
  
Seto sighed as he leaned back in his chair in his office at the top of the Kaiba Corporation building, admiring his work. He'd been redesigning the website for the company, and was rather pleased with the way things had turned out. He'd used various different codes to make the letters and boxes just right, and was now taking a break.  
  
The last few weeks had been rather quiet since they'd defeated the Vampire Lord in Egypt, and Seto wasn't complaining. He'd had quite enough of the spiritual and magical involvement for a while, and was enjoying just running his company smoothly.  
  
The door to his office suddenly opened and his younger brother, Mokuba, ran in, smiling.  
  
"Hi, niisama!" he cried, taking off his shoes and flopping down on a chair in the corner. "What's up?"  
  
Seto smiled.  
  
"Nothing really," he replied calmly, watching as his brother rummaged through his backpack, apparently looking for something. "I redesigned the website."  
  
"Mm-hm, that's good," Mokuba muttered vaguely, pulling out math worksheets and notebook papers filled with doodles. "I got this cool invitation at school today..." he muttered, pulling out a brightly-colored flyer. "Here it is!"  
  
He hurried up to his brother's desk and put it down on top of the keyboard, Seto looking down at it curiously.  
  
"It's an invitation to a winter dance," Mokuba announced, smiling. "And I was thinking that we could go."  
  
Seto sighed, narrowing his eyes skeptically at the black-haired boy. Mokuba ALWAYS seemed to be finding Seto's invitations, or getting one of his own, to events that Seto had no intention of going to. Yet somehow or another, he always managed to talk to the CEO into going.  
  
"WE?" Seto asked, raising an eyebrow at Mokuba, who nodded.  
  
"Yeah!" Mokuba replied, looking down at the ground, still smiling. "It SHOULD be a lot of fun, you know."  
  
Seto raised his eyebrow higher.  
  
"Why?" he asked, looking down at the sheet. "Are you interested in dancing, the food, or asking a girl to come?"  
  
Mokuba fell over, looking embarrassed.  
  
"Well, the food is good," he admitted, pushing himself up off of the floor. "And dancing is okay, and there's definitely no GIRL I want to ask, but I just thought it might be a relaxing, fun time."  
  
He smiled his cutest smile at his old brother, who sighed.  
  
"You really want to go to this, don't you?" Seto asked, looking down at the sheet of paper.  
  
Mokuba nodded eagerly.  
  
"Yeah, but I want you to come too," he added quickly, not wanting Seto to get any ideas about just dropping Mokuba off. "Come on, Seto. You need a break!"  
  
Seto sighed, opening his drawer and putting the flyer in, then opening his planner and scribbled something under the Friday slot.  
  
"All right, we'll go," Seto sighed, replacing the cap on his pen.  
  
Mokuba grinned.  
  
"Yay!" he cried, sprinting over to his backpack.  
  
"But you have to finish any homework you have beforehand, okay?" Seto added, looking over at the boy.  
  
Mokuba nodded, still grinning.  
  
"Sure thing!" he replied.  
  
***********  
  
It was a quiet day in Domino Museum, especially in the Egyptian department. Since Battle City and the Anubis attack back in October, not many people were interested in the temporary exhibit. However, a pale outline of a man, unseen by most, was wandering down the hallways, floating a few inches off the floor.  
  
Priest Seto was now spending most of his time floating around the Egyptian wing of the museum, having had nothing else to do as of lately. The Millennium Items, with the exception of the eye and the scales, both of which were still missing, were all in good hands, and there were no evil spirits of people to worry about. So now the priest's main focus was trying to think of ways to help Yami get his memory back.  
  
"If only Bastet hadn't forbidden me to tell the Pharaoh," Priest Seto murmured, glancing up at the stone tablet, which depicted he and the Pharaoh, and their strongest monsters. "That would have made things a lot easier."  
  
A noise behind him made him turn around, startled. He sighed when he realized it was only a man snapping a photo of one of the exhibits, despite the sign that said "No Pictures, Please" on the wall in front of him.  
  
Priest Seto still didn't quite understand the functions of the camera, but he had figured out that it wasn't a weapon, at least. The man turned and walked straight through the spirit, getting in position and snapping a photo of the tablet as well.  
  
Priest Seto raised an eyebrow, slightly suspicious now. Why would this man be using the...camera to take pictures of the tablet? Was he working for evil? Or just a common man interested in the subject?  
  
Narrowing his eyes as the man walked away the priest floated back toward the upstairs wing, still watching the man closely.  
  
***********  
  
"I want to go with someone!" Pearl Lark whined, sitting on the end of her cousin's bed.  
  
Amber Johnson sighed, pulling the brightly-colored flyer out of her white-haired cousin's grasp. Pearl had been in Japan for over two weeks, long past Christmas Vacation, seeing as how it was February, and Amber, as much as she loved her, was beginning to become irked by her.  
  
"Pearl, there's no one for you to go to the dance WITH," Amber sighed, putting the paper in her desk drawer and returning to her math homework. "Go downstairs and play on the computer or something."  
  
Pearl huffed crossly and folded her arms across her chest.  
  
"Am-ber!" she whined, leaning over her cousin's shoulder. "You'll have Duke all to yourself starting next week, so PLEASE let me..."  
  
Amber's eyes widened and she turned around so quickly that she sent Pearl falling to the ground, having lost her balance.  
  
"No, Pearl! You can't go to the dance with Duke!" she replied in an irritated voice. "Go ask someone else! Go bother someone else," she added, turning back to her work. "Besides, Duke already asked me."  
  
Pearl huffed, stalking out of Amber's room and down the hallway toward Duke's room. Amber, who was staying at Duke Devlin's place as an exchange student had her own room practically, her own boyfriend practically, and her own set of tight friends. She was a good duelist and was liked by a lot of people.  
  
"Okay, scratch that," Pearl muttered with a laugh, remembering how most of the kids at school couldn't stand Amber, and even Tristan and Joey hated her for the most part. "But still."  
  
It was hard not to be jealous of the brown-haired girl after a while. Especially when her boyfriend was SUPER cute and a certain ten-year old cousin of hers had a crush on him.  
  
"Who else IS there?" Pearl huffed, sitting down on the stairs and putting her chin in her hands. "I mean, there's that Kaiba guy, but he's too...too something. Yugi, he's got Tea. Bakura? No. Taerro? Definitely NO. Tristan? He likes Serenity. Joey? He likes Mai!"  
  
Pearl let out a sigh of exasperation.  
  
"Sheesh, isn't there ANY decent guys left to go with me?!" she cried, feeling irritated.  
  
So irritated, in fact, that she didn't notice Duke walk up behind her, an amused expression on his face.  
  
"How about you go with Kaiba's younger brother?" Duke suggested, looking down at her, causing Pearl to jump, startled. "Mokuba. He's about your age."  
  
Pearl scrunched up her nose.  
  
"Ew, no," she muttered, looking down at the stairs, hoping she wasn't blushing. "I like, mature people, if you know what I mean. Most ten-year olds are, well, immature. You know?"  
  
It was old Duke could do to stop himself from laughing as he nodded, a twinkle in his eye.  
  
"Yes, I DO know, very well," he replied, grinning.  
  
************  
  
Bakura sat at the dining room table of Tristan's house, a chess board set up in the center, Tristan and Taerro in the middle of a heated game, which had been slightly interrupted by what Bakura thought of as a staring contest between the two boys.  
  
"Um...whose move was it again?" Bakura asked, grinning as he scratched his cheek, looking embarrassed.  
  
Tristan stopped glaring at Taerro and blinked, scratching his head.  
  
"You know, I'm not sure anymore..." he muttered, turning to the black-haired boy across from him. "Taerro, do you remember?"  
  
Taerro adjusted his glasses, trying to think.  
  
"Well, we can just count the moves backwards starting with white to find out," he replied, doing the work mentally in his head, his finger tracing where the pieces had moved on the board. "Hm..."  
  
Tristan sighed, leaning back in his chair.  
  
"Okay, you do that and let me know when you're done," he chuckled, looking over at Bakura. "Man, I think it's been about ten minutes since the last move. We must have gotten a little side-tracked," he muttered.  
  
Bakura sweatdropped.  
  
"Um, actually it was twenty-five minutes since the last move, Tristan," he corrected the brown-haired boy politely. "But anyway," he continued quickly, changing the subject. "Are you going to the Winter Dance with anyone?"  
  
Tristan smirked, nodding proudly.  
  
"Yep," he replied calmly, putting his hands behind his head and sighing contently. "I managed to call Serenity's place when Joey wasn't around and she said yes."  
  
Bakura smiled, chuckling.  
  
"I don't think Joey is going to be very pleased to hear that," he reminded the boy, but Tristan shrugged, Taerro suddenly speaking up.  
  
"Aha! Just as I thought," he said smartly, grinning and adjusting his glasses again. "It is black's turn."  
  
Tristan nodded and moved his knight over to attack Taerro's queen, no longer interested in the game. He was too busy daydreaming about the dance and Serenity.  
  
  
  
Taerro clucked his tongue and took a pawn with his queen, attacking the king.  
  
"Sorry Tristan," he sighed, tipping Tristan's king over with the tip of his finger. "That's checkmate."  
  
Tristan let his shoulders slump, his good mood slightly deflated.  
  
"Ah, great," he muttered, narrowing his eyes as Taerro smiled proudly. "Good game, I guess."  
  
Bakura sighed, just glad SOMEONE had finally won.  
  
"Honestly, we need to remember to put a clock on you two next time," Bakura muttered with a smile, picking up his backpack.  
  
***********  
  
Meanwhile, in a dark location of some sort, purple beams of light flashing across the room every few moments, a dark-haired women sat in silence, her eyes closed in concentration.  
  
"The moment of truth is arriving," she murmured to herself, her eyes opening and narrowing as she grinned malevolently. "And those foolish children will forfeit their powers, and their lives to the TRUE master of the ancient arts."  
  
Smirking, she laughed calmly to herself, her perfect plan almost at its commencement.  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter One  
  
^_^ PLEASE REVIEW!  
  
"Yeah, yeah, review and let us know what you think. ^_~ We'll get the next chapter up soon, don't worry. Come back soon!" 


	2. Chapter Two: A Night of Excitement

Chapter Two: A Night of Excitement  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for reviewing, everyone. And I WAS sorta thinking of doing a bit more with Mokuba and Pearl, but I'm not sure yet. XD Pearl DOES need an excuse to get better with Japanese, though. ^_~  
  
"Yeah. ^_^ And here's Chapter Ni! (Which is two, in Japanese. XD)  
  
************  
  
Chapter Two: A Night of Excitement  
  
Jump. Jump. Jump. Stop. Jump. Jump. Turn around. Stop.  
  
Tea Gardner mirrored her friend, Kiki, an Irish dancer's moves as they tried to work out the next stage in a dance her foreign friend was teaching her. Ever since Tea had stood in as a replacement for one of the Irish girl's friends back at Christmas, Kiki had begun training Tea on the weekdays, teaching her new dance steps. Tea, of course, was only too thrilled to learn.  
  
"Whew, okay, let's take a break," Kiki murmured, pulling out her water-bottle and taking a sip as she slumped down in a plastic chair that was sitting on the stage of the Domino High Auditorium.  
  
Tea nodded, wearily fishing around in her backpack for her own bottle. After retrieving it, she sighed and took a long sip, looking up at Kiki with a grin.  
  
"This dance is pretty fun," she commented, Kiki shrugging.  
  
"It's a basic," she replied, staring out at the empty seats in the auditorium. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask you, are you going to be at the dance on Friday?"  
  
Tea blinked.  
  
"Dance?" she inquired, confused.  
  
Kiki nodded, pulling out her bright yellow flyer and showing it to Tea.  
  
  
  
"Yeah, it's some Winter Dance the high school is hosting, and I was wondering if you were going to be there," Kiki repeated herself, grinning.  
  
Tea scanned the sheet of paper and then handed it back to Kiki, smiling as well, her cheeks rather red.  
  
"Well, I guess I will be going then, if there's a dance," she replied awkwardly, looking down at the dusty stage.  
  
How could it get so dusty if people were always walking around on it? Tea thought vaguely, still nervous about the dance. If there really WAS a dance that Friday, why hadn't Yugi asked her to it? Could it be that he really DIDN'T like her at all, but had only gone with her those other times to be nice?  
  
"Hello? Tea?" Kiki asked, leaning over into Tea's face, causing the brown-haired girl to jump.  
  
"Oh!" she cried, blushing even more as she spilled half of her water on her skirt and the floor. "What were you saying?"  
  
Kiki raised an eyebrow, looking suspiciously down at her friend.  
  
"I asked if you thought a boy would ask you to go with him," she repeated herself, still looking down at Tea oddly. "But you didn't reply."  
  
Tea squeezed out her skirt, standing up, her cheeks still bright red.  
  
"Sorry, I was just...spacing out there for a second," Tea replied with a forced smile. "Ehe, well I'd better get home. Thanks for the lesson."  
  
She waved as she picked up her bag and walked down the stage stairs, Kiki waving good-bye after her.  
  
"Good-bye, Tea," she called, shaking her head with a smile. "Good luck with your guy asking you."  
  
Tea, however, was already out of the auditorium and halfway across the lawn as she hurried toward her home in the cold winter air.  
  
*************  
  
Yugi sighed, staring at the phone from where he was sitting at his desk. He'd been staring at it for nearly the last fifteen minutes, debating whether or not he should call Tea and just ask her to the dance.  
  
"Just do it, aibou," Yami said with a smirk, looking rather amused as he watched his friend from the other side of the room. "You know she'll say yes."  
  
Sighing nervously, Yugi picked up the phone and dialed the number to Tea's house. Shaking, he brought the receiver up to her ear, hearing the phone ring on the other line. Suddenly, someone picked up.  
  
"Hello?" Came Tea's voice the other end, Yugi gulping.  
  
"Uh..." Yugi stammered, not sure if he should just hang up the phone and pretend he never tried to call, but after taking a deep breath, he decided he'd come that far, and he ought to just keep going, regardless of her response. "Hi, Tea, it's Yugi. You know, from school."  
  
Tea blinked, confused. How long had she known Yugi again? At least five years, and the last year they'd been together so often at Duel Monster tournaments and fighting off evil villains that she'd practically seen him every day! Why was the boy being so shy now?  
  
"Yugi?" Tea asked, still confused as she sat down on her bed, holding the portable phone up to her ear. "What's up?"  
  
Yugi blushed at her voice.  
  
"Um...er...you've heard about the Winter Dance this Friday?" he asked in what he hoped sounded like a casual voice, be somehow he had his doubts.  
  
Tea smiled, her heart rate speeding up. Maybe he was actually going to ask her!  
  
"Yeah, I have," Tea replied eagerly, wishing he'd stop stammering. "What about it?"  
  
Yugi gulped.  
  
"Well, I wanted to know if...um...you'd want to go. With me. To the dance, I mean!" he said choppily, feeling stupid.  
  
Tea grinned excitedly as she nodded.  
  
"Yeah! I'd love to go!" she replied happily, grinning.  
  
Yugi sighed a sigh of relief, letting his breath out in one long blow. Tea blinked, wondering why the phone suddenly sounded like static was blowing through.  
  
"Yugi? Are you still there?" she asked, blinking.  
  
Yugi laughed nervously.  
  
"Of course I'm still here!" he replied, scratching his cheek, Yami shaking his head with a smile from across the room. "But, I have to go now. See you tomorrow, I guess."  
  
Tea smiled.  
  
"Yeah, goodbye," she replied, hanging up the phone and jumping up. "Yes!" she whispered, grinning broadly.  
  
************  
  
Yugi hung up the phone as well, nearly falling out of his chair as he did so. He sighed, leaning back with a content smile on his face. He'd actually done it! He'd asked Tea to the dance AND she'd said yes.  
  
"I don't know why you were so afraid, aibou," Yami replied, floating above him. "She's gone to several other dances with you before."  
  
Yugi smiled embarrassedly, scratching his cheek as he pulled himself up again.  
  
"Well, it just seemed more awkward this time," he replied, feeling silly now. "I wonder why..."  
  
Yami laughed.  
  
  
  
************  
  
The week passed by fairly quickly, and Friday evening approached far quicker than Yugi had expected. Nervously, the boy walked up to the school gym, where he could already hear party music playing from inside. Yami was floating beside his partner, hoping the dance wasn't going to turn out like the last one had.  
  
  
  
"Any sign of ghosts, Yugi?" Yami asked jokingly, hoping to make his nervous friend a bit more at ease.  
  
Yugi, instead, jumped up and looked around wildly.  
  
"Where?!" he cried, Yami's eyes widening.  
  
"Er, nowhere, I was merely asking since those two ghosts showed up at the last dance you went to, remember?" Yami asked, feeling bad now for brining it up, although he didn't know Yugi was going to react so strangely.  
  
  
  
"He must really be preoccupied," Yami thought to himself, shaking his head as Yugi sighed with relief.  
  
"Oh," he muttered, forcing a smile. "Yeah, I remember, but no, I don't see any."  
  
Yami was quite glad for Yugi's sake when Joey, Tristan, Serenity, and Mai came running up to them, waving, all dressed for the occasion. Well, at least Serenity and Mai were.  
  
"Hi, Yugi!" Serenity called cheerfully, adjusting her sparkly purple shirt.   
  
Yugi smiled.  
  
"Hi guys," he greeted his friends.  
  
Mai looked around, confused.  
  
"Where's your date, hun?" Mai asked, looking baffled as Yugi blushed a deep red.  
  
Tristan rolled his eyes.  
  
"I'm sure Tea's already in the gym with that dancer friend of hers, Mai," he reminded the blonde-haired girl, not wanting to embarrass Yugi further. "Come on Serenity, they're starting a good song."  
  
Joey was too glad to have gotten Mai to come along with him to the dance, despite the fact it was a high-school dance, to be TOO angry at Tristan for inviting Serenity. In fact, the boy seemed pretty calm, keeping up a constant chatter as he, Mai, and Yugi made their way after Tristan and Serenity toward the gym.  
  
Inside, several pairs of dancers were already on the dance floor, rocking away to a pop song of some sort. Tristan and Serenity jumped right in, smiling and laughing. Amber and Duke were dancing somewhere in the middle, Amber in a hot pink top as usual, and shiny black pants. Duke hadn't changed style at all, and was still wearing his red vest and black jeans.  
  
Seto was sitting in a chair near the wall, looking rather bored as Mokuba wandered around the gym, looking pleased to have succeeded in getting his brother there. Standing near Seto was Tea and Kiki, both of whom were dressed neatly, and were looking around for Yugi.  
  
  
  
"There he is!" Kiki cried, pointing at Yugi, who was still blushing slightly as he entered the gym.  
  
Tea grinned, waving back at Kiki, who winked, as she ran up to meet Yugi.  
  
"Yugi!" she called, the boy looking up at her with a smile. "You finally got here. I've been waiting for about twenty minutes!"  
  
Yugi blushed further.  
  
"Sorry, I lost track of time when I was finishing up this project I was working on at the Game Shop," he stammered, feeling embarrassed.  
  
Tea bit her lip, feeling bad.  
  
"Okay, that was NOT the right thing to start of with," she scolded herself mentally, taking Yugi's hand and pulling him into the dance crowd. "Come on! Let's join in!" Tea called cheerfully, Yugi looking a little more confident.  
  
"O...okay!" Yugi replied, smiling.  
  
Priest Seto was floating around above the dance, intrigued by all the colors and lights, although he could have done without the music. He spotted Yami, who was over by the DJ's area.  
  
"What is the POINT of a dance?" The priest muttered to himself, confused.  
  
The dance SLIGHTLY resembled when the Pharaoh would have entertainers come and perform for him, but why would the people attending the dance be the ones entertaining? And why were Seto and a few other people the only ones watching? It just didn't make any sense.  
  
Pearl sighed, blowing a strip of her white hair out of her face as she sat on a metal fold-out chair, across the room from where Seto was. She hadn't managed to find anyone who didn't already have someone to come to the dance with, or that she'd want to dance with.  
  
"Stupid dance," she muttered crossly, folding her arms across her white T-shirt, pushing her pearl pendant up against her skin.  
  
Sighing, she looked to her side, where Mokuba was walking around, smiling as he waved at Bakura and Taerro, both of whom were playing a game of chess on a table near the wall, having not found dance partners for themselves either.  
  
Pearl bit her lip, realizing Mokuba was coming her way. Determined not to look as though she was partner-less, she looking up at the ceiling in a dignified way, looking as if the party were up there rather than in front of her.  
  
Mokuba smiled as he noticed the white-haired girl, realizing she was sitting all by herself. Casually, he walked over to her.  
  
"Hi," he said to her slowly, remembering she didn't speak Japanese very well. "Are you waiting for someone?"  
  
Pearl heard Mokuba, but waited a few moments before turning to look at him, acting as though she'd been so preoccupied with something else, she hadn't even heard the black-haired boy.  
  
"What? Oh, I'm...doing something," she replied snappishly.  
  
Mokuba smirked, looking out at the dance floor.  
  
"While you're waiting for your friend, you want to dance?" he asked politely, figuring that in the two weeks the girl had been around, she hadn't met someone she'd ask to the dance.  
  
And besides which, he wasn't doing anything either. It'd be a lot more fun for both of them. Pearl sighed, weighing her options. True, Mokuba was much too immature for her to LIKE-like, she thought to herself, noting he hadn't bothered to dress up for the dance and was still wearing his yellow and blue shirt and vest. But...she didn't have anything else to do...  
  
"I guess," she replied with a sigh almost, standing up and following Mokuba out to the dance floor.  
  
Mokuba suppressed a laugh, knowing that Pearl's indifferent attitude was an act. Amber blinked, noticing Pearl had gotten on the dance floor at last, and with Mokuba! Duke followed her gaze and turned around, grinning.  
  
  
  
"I told her Mokuba wasn't a bad kid to hang out with," he chuckled, Amber grinning as the song continued.  
  
************  
  
In the middle of the desert in Egypt there stood a large stone temple, which had sat in the same spot for thousands of years, and just like the building, the inhabitants had been around for thousands of years as well.  
  
Inside, Bastet, the black cat-goddess, flicked her tail back and forth, her eyes closes in concentration as she reminisced on the past few months.  
  
"So Anubis has been put on his ten year banishment, the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring has gone to who knows where, and the Vampire Lord has been put back in a stone tablet," she purred, knowing she should feel content that the group of people she was to be watching were doing so well on the Millennium Destiny.  
  
But for some reason, her excitement couldn't take flight. She felt as though she were overlooking something; as if someone else was hiding in the shadows, waiting for everyone's guard to be let down so it could strike.  
  
Opening her eyes to reveal tiny slits of yellow peering out into the darkness, the cat goddess contemplated the situation to herself.  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter Two  
  
^_^ Review!  
  
"Please do! And next chapter up soon! XD" 


	3. Chapter Three: Strange Happenings

Chapter Three: Strange Happenings  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for your reviews! LOL, I liked the scene with Mokuba and Pearl too. XD  
  
"And here's Chapter Three!"  
  
************  
  
Chapter Three: Strange Happenings  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow as he watched Mokuba and Pearl attempt to dance to the rocking pop music that was blaring from the speakers.  
  
"So Mokuba actually found someone to dance with after all..." he murmured, wondering if this had been the boy's real intention of coming to the dance. "But that's not like him at all," Seto reminded himself, looking amused as Mokuba stepped on Pearl's shoe, Pearl shoving him away looking irritated before continuing the dance.  
  
"Sorry about that," Mokuba giggled, rubbing above his mouth, slightly embarrassed. "I've never tried dancing before."  
  
Pearl rolled her eyes.  
  
"Okay," she replied in a monotone, trying to work out what the boy had said, but figured it was some sort of excuse. "Whoa!" she cried, tripping over Joey's shoes and stumbling forward.  
  
Mokuba giggled again, Pearl shooting a death glare at him. Mokuba abruptly stopped laughing and continued the dance in silence. Across from them, Joey and Mai seemed to have been worn out dancing, and were now really just standing in the middle of the dance floor, talking.  
  
"So, been to any tournaments lately, Mai?" Joey asked, knowing that the way to conversation with Mai was with Duel Monsters.  
  
Mai nodded, winking.  
  
"You bet, kid," she replied, Joey resisting the urge to protest at her calling him "kid." "And I've won nearly ever single one of them, too."  
  
Joey gaped.  
  
"Really?" he asked, astonished. "Every single one?!"  
  
  
  
Mai shrugged, flipping a lock of her blonde hair behind her.  
  
"Well, there was that tournament in Kyoto where I lost in the final round, but other than that, yeah, I've won them all. Got quite a few titles, too," she replied casually.  
  
Joey sighed, biting his lip. Since Battle City, he hadn't won ANY major titles, and he hadn't even won a title there, to be quite honest. Well, I DID get bragging rights to say I'd been in the finals of Battle City and all, Joey reminded himself, trying to boost his moral, but still. Mai's doing a LOT more than I am.  
  
Tea and Yugi sat down next to Taerro and Bakura, who were in the middle of a heated chess battle. Taerro moved his queen, attacking Bakura's knight as Tea took of a sip of her drink, her cheeks pink from dancing.  
  
"Well that was tiring, wasn't it?" she asked Yugi, grinning at him.  
  
Yugi nodded, smiling back.  
  
"Yeah, but it was fun," he replied, watching Bakura defend.  
  
"I'll bet it was," Bakura agreed, looking out at the dance floor and chuckling slightly. "Mai and Joey had better get off the floor before someone makes them. They're not even dancing anymore."  
  
Tea blinked, noticing Pearl and Mokuba.  
  
"Looks like Pearl "lowered" herself to dance with Mokuba," she joked, shaking her head. "Duke was telling me about how picky she was about her dance partner."  
  
"I would have been glad to give her a dance or two," Taerro replied, adjusting his glasses as he attacked another of Bakura's pieces.  
  
Yugi nodded, smiling as Yami sat down in the seat next to him, still in spirit form. He narrowed his eyes, not knowing what was preventing him from enjoying himself at the party. For some reason, though, he felt as though SOMETHING was not right.  
  
"Well," Pearl commented, after having danced a few dances with Mokuba, both really just making up their moves as they went along, since neither had ever taken a class. "I guess if you put you hair in a ponytail, got an earring, and got a bit inches taller, you could do," she said skeptically, glancing dreamingly over at Duke, who was over at the refreshment table with Amber, Tristan, and Serenity.  
  
Mokuba blinked, looking confused.  
  
"Huh?" he asked, not quite sure what she meant.  
  
Pearl rolled her eyes.  
  
"Forget it," she replied, walking away. "Thanks for the dance."  
  
Mokuba rolled his eyes.  
  
"Anytime," he replied, skipping over to the refreshment table to get a cookie before they were all gone.  
  
************  
  
It was close to eleven that night when Yugi and the others finally decided to leave. Seto was more than happy to go, seeing as how he hadn't been doing anything other than watching his classmates dance. Kiki had done an Irish Dancing demonstration with Tea at about ten, and after that, things sort of began to wind down.  
  
"So long, Winter Dance," Joey called back to the gym as they were walking toward the parking lot, as if he were saying goodbye to a dear friend. "It was a barrel of fun."  
  
"Depends on what you call fun," Seto muttered absentmindedly, he and Mokuba walking over to their black car.  
  
Joey rolled his eyes.  
  
"It wasn't fun for you cause YOU didn't have a date, Kaiba," Joey taunted, smiling proudly, closing his eyes. "Unlike Joey Wheeler, who did indeed have a date..."  
  
"...who is leaving in her car now, with or without you!" Mai called from her blue convertible, already buckled in and starting the engine.  
  
Joey gasped, sprinting over to the car and jumping over the door and into the seat beside Mai as the car started moving backwards. Grinning proudly, Joey looked over at Mai, who rolled her eyes as she switched gears.  
  
"Don't get any mud on the seats, Joey, or next dance, you won't have a date either," she said sternly, narrowing her eyes at Joey. "And buckle up."  
  
Sighing, Joey buckled his seatbelt as Mai took off, waving to Yugi and the others.  
  
"Bye Joey! Bye Mai!" Yugi called, laughing with the others, all of whom looked ready to go home, as much fun as the evening had been.  
  
Tea smiled, looking down at Yugi. It HAD been a fun evening, she thought to herself, looking up at the starry sky. Too bad it had to end so soon, she added, sighing.  
  
"So," Amber grinned, prodding Pearl's shoulder gently. "Mokuba wasn't so bad after all, now was he?"  
  
Pearl huffed, folding her arms across her chest and closing her eyes in irritation.  
  
"Actually, he was quite immature," she replied haughtily. "Just like I thought he'd be."  
  
Duke rolled his eyes with a smile.  
  
"Sure, Pearl," he replied.  
  
"Well, guess I'll see you tomorrow, Yugi," Tea said, Yugi nodding.  
  
"Yeah, come on over to the Game Shop and maybe we can do something," he replied, looking around at the others, who nodded as well, all now leaving in opposite directions.  
  
"Bye!" Bakura called, waving as he hurried off down the sidewalk, Seto's car already a few blocks ahead of him on the same road.  
  
"See you later guys!" Yugi called, he and Yami hurrying toward the Game Shop in through the chilly night air.  
  
************  
  
The woman sat in a dark room, looking down at a shiny orb in front of her. She could see them now; Yugi Motou was in bed, deep in a peaceful sleep. Seto Kaiba as well, his brother, Pearl Lark, Duke Devlin, Ryou Bakura, and the rest of her targets.  
  
"The time is right," she murmured, rubbing the orb gently with her hands, focusing her power and concentration into it. "It is time my guests arrive for the event; the event of their eventual demise."  
  
Chuckling lowly, she narrowed her eyes as a strange glow began to emit from the orb.  
  
"And so it begins," she murmured with a smile, leaning back in her chair as her magic began to play out its spell on her victims.  
  
************  
  
Seto squeezed his eyes shut, groaning as he heard a strange buzzing around him. Opening one eye to reveal a blurry but bright surrounding, he wondered vaguely if he'd accidentally forgot to turn off his alarm the night before.  
  
"I must have left the light on, too," he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut again and feeling around for the alarm clock.  
  
His fingers suddenly touched against a large round button on top of a white alarm clock, quite unlike his own. Narrowing his eyebrows, the boy opened both eyes and gasped.  
  
He wasn't in his own room at all. Instead, he was in a bright white room, the lights shining down on him brightly, although he couldn't tell from where they were coming. In his room, there were only two other people; Mokuba, who was curled up in another bright bed, and Priest Seto, who was sleeping in a white chair across the room.  
  
"Funny," Seto murmured, narrowing his eyes at the priest.  
  
The high priest, normally almost transparent, even to the eyes of those who could see him, seemed to look a bit more...alive than usual. His outline was no longer vague, but quite clear, just like himself.  
  
A slight shiver running down his back, Seto pushed the covers off his bed, and realized he was wearing his black pants and shirt, along with his purple trenchcoat.  
  
"Who could have taken us all somewhere else, put us in our regular clothes, and put us back in bed without waking us up?" Seto muttered to himself, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, as if someone were watching him.  
  
And Seto had a sneaking suspicion that someone could very well be watching them.  
  
***********  
  
"What the...?!" Tea cried, bolting upright in bed and looking around, sweating.  
  
She was no longer in her bedroom, but in a brightly lit room, everything in it from the sheets to the walls and floors white. There were two other beds in the room, in which Serenity and Mai were sleeping.  
  
Tea panted, feeling worried and anxious, though relieved she wasn't in this dream alone. Yes, that's right, she told herself with a diligent nod. This is all just a really weird dream that SEEMS real.  
  
She pushed the sheets off and got out of bed, realizing she was wearing her blue sleeveless shirt and her jean shorts. She was even wearing her shoes and her hair was neatly brushed, as if she'd already spend a half hour getting ready for the day.  
  
Heart pounding, she tiptoed over to Serenity's bed and shook her gently.  
  
"Serenity?" she whispered nervously, biting her lip. "Serenity? Get up, there's something weird going on."  
  
Serenity squinted as she sat up, trying to focus on Tea in the brightly lit room.  
  
"T...Tea?" she murmured, shielding her eyes from the light. "Why are you here?"  
  
Tea shivered looking down at Serenity, noticing she was already dressed as well.  
  
"I don't know," Tea replied honestly, reaching out her hand and pulling Serenity out of bed. "But I don't know where "here" is either, OR how we got "here."  
  
Serenity gasped, looking around in shock, her brown eyes wide with fear and surprise.  
  
"Oh my gosh!" she cried, putting her hand to her mouth. "Where...where are we?"  
  
Tea gulped.  
  
"I don't know," she repeated, trying to sound braver than she felt. "But at least we're together. Although, I have a bad feeling that someone not to friendly is involved with this."  
  
************  
  
"Yugi...Yugi..."  
  
Yugi moaned, rolling over and looking up a tall figure that was standing over him, a bright light shining down on him. Squinting, he tried to make out the figure that was shaking him. As he slowly focused and got his eyes used to the light, he gasped, bolting upright.  
  
"Yami?!" he cried, looking at the spirit, who appeared to be no longer a spirit, standing beside his bed, that wasn't really his own bed.  
  
Yami nodded solemnly, looking around suspiciously.  
  
"But..." Yugi stammered, standing up, noticing that both he AND Yami were wearing a physical Millennium Puzzle, and both he and the spirit where in a body of their own. "Where are we? And how are you in a body and wearing a Millennium Puzzle? And...?!"  
  
"I don't understand any of this anymore than you do, Yugi," he replied shortly, cutting the boy off. "But one thing is for sure, I sense a great deal of dark energy coming from somewhere in this place."  
  
"Dark energy?" Yugi repeated, gulping, examining the room they were now in, feeling as though his head were spinning with all the questions he had. "Do you mean to say that some evil person kidnapped us and brought us to this weird...place?"  
  
Yami sighed, closing his eyes.  
  
"I don't know, but it's a guess," Yami sighed, trying to work things out.  
  
"You were almost correct there, Yugi Motou," A voice suddenly rang out through the room, Yugi and Yami both looking around wildly for the source. "Unfortunately, not QUITE right."  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter Three  
  
^_^ REVIEW!  
  
"And then we'll get our next chapter up soon. ^_~" 


	4. Chapter Four: The Dimension

Chapter Four: The Dimension  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for the reviews! And it's not exactly the Shadow Realm, but another realm, you're on the right track. ^_~  
  
"And here's Chapter Four!"  
  
************  
  
Chapter Four: The Dimension  
  
Yugi gasped, wondering who it was that could be talking to them.  
  
"Who are you?" Yami snapped, narrowing his eyes. "And why have you brought us here?"  
  
There was a light chuckle as the female voice continued to speak.  
  
"Who am I?" she laughed. "Well, you don't know me, if that is what you meant. But I know you very well, Yugi Motou, and you as well, Nameless Pharaoh."  
  
Yugi blinked, stunned. Someone had obviously been keeping a close watch on him AND have been familiar with the ancient magic. But how could she have known about Yami, Yugi wondered to himself.  
  
"Enough taunting!" Yami growled, clenching his fists. "What exactly do you want from us?"  
  
There was another chuckle.  
  
"Leave your room, turn left, and walk down the hallway," The voice replied, as if she were a teacher instructing her students. "You will find breakfast waiting for you and a few people you should know."  
  
Yugi blinked.  
  
"Breakfast?!" he cried after a moment, looking over at Yami with his wide purple eyes. "That's the last thing I want to do right now! We need to figure a way out of here...wherever here is."  
  
Yami nodded solemnly, thinking back to the woman's words.  
  
"However, it is best we follow the instructions she gave us, if we stay on our guard," he replied, glancing over at the white door across the room. "Perhaps we will be able to confront whoever it is pulling the strings behind all this soon."  
  
Yugi nodded worriedly, walking over to the door, Yami behind him.  
  
"I hope so, Yami," he replied with a sigh, opening the door.  
  
*************  
  
Seto walked over to Mokuba's bed and shook him gently.  
  
"Mokuba?" he asked, eyes still narrowed as he tried to figure out the situation. "Mokuba, wake up."  
  
"Mm?" Mokuba mumbled, blinking and sitting up looking very sleepy. "What is it?"  
  
Mokuba blinked, taking in his surroundings.  
  
"Where...are we?!" he cried, looking up at his older brother with wide eyes.  
  
Seto sighed, gritting his teeth. He hated being in the dark about things, especially when criminals and evil were probably involved. It always made things more difficult to solve.  
  
"I don't know, Mokuba," he replied narrowing his eyes. "But we'll find out soon enough."  
  
Priest Seto blinked, opening his eyes and looking around, confused.  
  
"Hm?" he asked, standing up and finding to his shock that he was no longer light and weightless, but was being held down to the ground by gravity.   
  
The priest looked at himself and with a shocked expression, touched his hands, turning them over as he examined them.  
  
"I...have a body again?" The priest murmured, looking around and spotting Seto and Mokuba.  
  
Seto shrugged.  
  
  
  
"We woke up in this strange place this morning," he explained simply. "I have no idea why we are here or where this is."  
  
Priest Seto, still looking baffled, was about to reply when the same female voice from before suddenly sounded through the bedroom.  
  
"All guests, please, go down the left side of the hallway until you reach the dining room," she said kindly, a hint of command in her voice. "Your breakfast is waiting for you."  
  
The voice stopped speaking, leaving all three stunned. Mokuba gulped, looking over at the other two cautiously.  
  
"B...breakfast?" he asked in a small voice.  
  
***********  
  
Out in the white hallway, by now, all of the gang were now coming out of the strange white bedrooms and were running into each other, similar looks of confusion on all their faces.  
  
"What are we doing here?" Bakura asked meekly, biting his lip as he spotted Joey and Tristan, both of whom looked clueless.  
  
"HOW did we get here is more the question," Taerro remarked seriously, narrowing his eyes as he adjusted his glasses.  
  
Tristan shrugged, feeling rather irritable.  
  
"I don't know," he replied, in answer to both questions. "But I can say that I've never heard of a case where you get in your bed and wake up somewhere else."  
  
"Unless you're on a train or something," Tea put in, shivering as she held Serenity's hand tightly, just so she wouldn't get lost by herself.  
  
Amber shrugged, brushing her brown hair out of her face, a very wide-eyed Pearl following behind her.  
  
"Still," she replied, narrowing her eyes. "You don't end up in a different bedroom AND in a different bed. Besides which, Pearl and I weren't even sleeping in the same room, and we ended up in the same one this morning."  
  
Tea nodded in agreement as she spotted an open white door down at the end of the long and winding hallway, a large table visible on the inside of the room, two people sitting down at it, looking confused.  
  
"Hey, it's Yugi!" Tea called, running ahead of the others, Serenity behind her.  
  
"This is really weird, niisama," Mokuba murmured to his brother as the lagged behind the others, Priest Seto having chosen to walk ahead.  
  
"This is so peculiar," Priest Seto murmured to himself, narrowing his eyes as he walked past Joey, the blonde-haired boy turning to look at him.  
  
"Oh, hey, Kaiba," Joey sighed, raising an eyebrow at the priest. "You got transported here too? Hey, what's with the weird clothes?" he added, looking at Priest Seto's Egyptian outfit.  
  
Priest Seto, however, merely blinked at Joey before continuing ahead without replying. Joey huffed, folding his arms across his chest crossly, irritated.  
  
"Well, goes to show you how mannerly Kaiba is," he grumped as Seto and Mokuba walked by. "Oh, hey Kaiba."  
  
Joey stopped and his jaw dropped.  
  
"Kaiba!?" he cried, gaping at the boy.  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow, clearly not interested in wasting time with Joey's ridiculousness.  
  
"What is it, Joey?" Seto sighed, looking impatient.  
  
"How...how did you get behind me? And how'd you change your clothes so fast?" Joey asked, eyes wide.  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes at Joey.  
  
"Joey, what are you babbling about?" he demanded, then deciding he didn't want to know. "Actually, I frankly don't care," he added, turning around and continuing toward the "dining-room."  
  
Mokuba scratched his head.  
  
"Joey, what time did you get to bed last night?" he asked the blonde-boy, rolling his eyes as he ran to catch up with Seto.  
  
Joey's shoulders sagged as he stared at Seto in disbelief.  
  
"But...but..." he stammered, Tristan suddenly grabbing his arm and pulling him toward the dining area.  
  
"Come on, Joey," Tristan sighed, not wanting his friend to get left behind and most likely, lost. "You don't want to get lost in this weird place, and besides, the lady DID say breakfast."  
  
Joey sighed, allowing himself to be pulled by Tristan into the dining room, which consisted of a large white table and just enough white chairs for all of whom were in the room with one empty one remaining.  
  
"I wonder who that's for," Taerro murmured, narrowing his eyes at the empty chair as Joey and Tristan started to sit down, but Joey suddenly gasped and leapt backward.  
  
"Yikes!" he cried, looking over at Seto and Priest Seto, who were sitting across from each other, Mokuba at Seto's left. "There are two Kaibas!"  
  
"And two Yugis!" Tristan added, gaping at Yugi and Yami, who sighed, looking worn out.  
  
"It's the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle," Yugi explained, blushing, for what seemed like the fiftieth time. "And the other Kaiba is the spirit of the ancient high priest," he added, Yami nodding over at Priest Seto, who looked rather embarrassed.  
  
"And we don't know why they have their own bodies right now, but it must have something to do with this strange place that we're in," Seto replied icily, glaring at Joey with his blue eyes. "Now if you'll sit down and stop making so much noise, perhaps we can start trying to figure things out."  
  
Joey, still glancing edgily at Priest Seto, took a seat in between Mai and Tristan, Mai staring at the breakfast placed in front of them with a look of suspicion.  
  
"Do you think whoever it is that brought us here poisoned the food or something?" she asked, lifting up a delicious-looking pancake to inspect it.  
  
Yugi shrugged, staring at the pitcher of orange juice in front of him.  
  
"I don't know," he replied with a sigh, looking around at the others. "So, all of us and the spirits that hang around us are here, I guess. But why?"  
  
Duke shrugged, twirling a lock of his black hair around his index finger.  
  
"Got me," he replied, looking over at the empty seat in between Mokuba and Yami. "But what's with the empty seat? Looks like whoever's got us here planned things out pretty carefully. Is she going to be joining us or something?"  
  
Before anyone had time to reply, there was a feminine chuckle from all around them, causing Yugi to look around wildly.  
  
"It's that voice again!" he cried, narrowing his eyes.  
  
"Indeed it is," The woman replied, grinning as she spoke from her chair in the dark room, her green orb glowing in front of her, showing her the scene in the dining room. "But I'm afraid I won't be joining you for your breakfast, but I advice you to eat up; you'll need your strength for today's missions."  
  
  
  
**********  
  
Meanwhile, the door to Bakura and Taerro's room where the two had found themselves that morning creaked open, a shady figure peeking out into the hallway, making sure that no one was around before coming out. Seeing that all the others had gone done to the dining hall, the figure stepped out into the hallway.  
  
  
  
"Hm, curious," Yami Bakura murmured, looking down at his hands and realizing that not only was he wearing a Millennium Ring, just as Bakura had been when he woke up, but he was also in a real body, which looked almost identical to Bakura's. "Although I was sealed deep down in the Millennium Ring, I've now been summoned back for some odd reason, and into a body as well."  
  
Bakura and Taerro had been so surprised at being in the strange white room that neither had noticed Yami Bakura in the room as well. The tomb-robber looked down the left side of the hallway with a grin, seeing the vague outlines of the gang in the dining hall.  
  
"I'm not exactly in the mood for breakfast," he murmured, looking down the other side of the hallway, where the white continued to stretch on for quite a bit before fading into a blackness. "But, I'm up for exploring this odd place," he said aloud, starting down the right side of the hallway. "I sense a peculiar form of energy coming from this direction, and I can hardly pass up an opportunity to claim it as my own."  
  
He chuckled to himself as he walked down the hallway.  
  
************  
  
Bastet jerked awake, her black fur rumpled as she sprang to her feet, panting heavily. Something was greatly wrong in Domino; she could sense it. Quickly, she sprinted outside, up one of the stone columns that supported the temple and up onto the roof where Thoth was sitting in meditation.  
  
"Thoth!" she snapped hastily, narrowing her yellow eyes. "Have you sensed it?"  
  
The ibis-headed god nodded slowly, his eyes closed as he absorbed Bastet's words.  
  
"Indeed, I have," he replied simply. "Three of the Millennium Items and nearly all of the ones involved with the Pharaoh and his mission have vanished off the face of this realm."  
  
Bastet nodded angrily, feeling her patience growing thin.  
  
"Yes!" she replied in irritation. "But why? And where could they have gone? No one can just disappear like that!"  
  
Thoth shook his head calmly, knowing if Bastet would only control her temper she would see it as well.  
  
"No, it is possible with the aid of an enhanced human," he replied calmly, looking down at his notes that he'd been writing on a scroll of papyrus. "Such as a magician, trained in the ancient arts."  
  
Bastet narrowed her eyes.  
  
"It still doesn't make sense," she snapped, pacing back and forth on the roof. "One is either dead, or living. There is no other option."  
  
Thoth smiled slightly.  
  
"One can live, but in another realm," he replied, closing his eyes mystically again.  
  
Bastet opened her eyes, blinking as she stared at Thoth in disbelief.  
  
"Are you saying...that they were all transported by ancient magic to another dimension of some sort?" she whispered, shocked.  
  
Thoth nodded solemnly.  
  
"That, Bastet, is what I am afraid must have happened," he replied with a sigh.  
  
************  
  
End of Chapter Four  
  
^_^!!! Please review!  
  
"o_o; And next chapter up soon." 


	5. Chapter Five: The Mission

Chapter Five: The Mission  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for the reviews, everyone.  
  
Red: "Yeeep. XD And yeah, Priest Seto IS pretty cute. ^^ And now that's he's got a body, we can hug him! *hugs*"  
  
Priest Seto: X_x Lucky me, I guess.  
  
^_^ Oh yeah. And here's chapter five!  
  
*************  
  
Chapter Five: The Mission  
  
Priest Seto raised an eyebrow, not having touched any of the food on the table yet, highly suspecting something was wrong with it, as well as having gotten used to not eating in his time as a spirit.  
  
"Missions?" he repeated, narrowing his eyes. "What exactly do you mean?"  
  
Joey stood up, slamming his hand down on the table angrily, causing all the dishes to clatter and shake.  
  
"Yeah, lady!" he yelled up at the ceiling, although who knew where the voice was really coming from. "What'd you drag us her for, invite us to breakfast, and THEN tell us we have to do some sort of mission for you?!"  
  
The soft chuckle rang through the room again as the woman laughed, amused at her guest's behavior.  
  
"Silly boy," she purred, her orb glowing brightly at Joey's outburst. "I took you as my guests into another dimension; MY dimension. I make all the rules here, and you are to follow them, and if you can accomplish that, things will go much more smoothly...for everyone."  
  
Yami growled, feeling irritated by the woman's lack of emotion in her voice. She was talking to them as if they were schoolchildren about to make a craft in art class, not as a kidnapper would to her hostages.  
  
"You have failed time and time again to answer these two questions; WHO are you, and what exactly do you want us to do?" Yami snapped, clenching his fists at his side.  
  
"That's right," The woman thought to herself, smiling. "Grow more angry," she though, her orb glowing brighter. "Keep yelling."  
  
She took a breath before continuing with her speech.  
  
"You do not know me," she said simply, closing her dark eyes daintily. "As I've said before. My name is Zurui, and I suppose that is all you really need to know about me, since you will not be meeting me for quite some time now. Instead, after you eat, you will embark on your "mission" with each other."  
  
Seto clenched his left fist, his other hand gripping the handle of his silver briefcase, which, fortunately enough, had been laying beside his bed when he woke up. He couldn't figure out why, but he decided it was well enough, considering the rod was in there.  
  
"We don't want to eat, we want to finish this ridiculous task you've set for us and leave," Taerro declared, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "Just tell us what you want to do."  
  
Tea nodded in agreement, biting her lip. Zurui seemed so calm that the task couldn't involve herself in any way. Was she going to make them fight against monsters, or zombies, like the Vampire Lord had?  
  
Zurui chuckled again, rubbing her green orb lighting, picturing the scenes in her mind.  
  
"Well, if that is what you wish," she purred, a dark green smoke suddenly filling the entire room, covering everything in a fog so thick that Serenity couldn't even see Tristan or even Duke who had been sitting right beside her.  
  
"J...Joey?" Serenity coughed, looking around as there was a whoosh of wind blowing through room.  
  
"What's going on?" Bakura cried, ducking down as the fog began to lift from the room.  
  
Yugi choked on the last bit of smoke that had filled up in the room before opening his watery eyes, which stung from the smoke, and looking around. Suddenly, he gasped.  
  
"Yami!" he cried, looking to his right and then his left, but there was no sign of his friend.  
  
Serenity looked around, confused and scared.  
  
"Tristan? Joey!?" she cried, scared as she realized neither her brother nor his friend were anywhere in sight.  
  
"Pearl? Duke!" Amber cried, realizing her younger cousin and her black-haired friend were missing from the room as well, as if they had just vanished into the green smoke.  
  
"Taerro's gone too," Mai muttered, looking around and not seeing the black-haired boy in sight.  
  
"And Tea..." Bakura added, shivering as he realized the brown-haired girl was no longer sitting down.  
  
"...and the priest," Seto murmured, looking around and seeing that the Egyptian man had disappeared, Mokuba now looking under the table to see if someone had taken refuge underneath from the smoke, to no avail.  
  
"They're ALL gone!" Mokuba cried, his eyes wide in shock. "Niisama, what could have happened to them?"  
  
Yugi clenched his fists in anger, shaking as he narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth.  
  
"Zurui!" he yelled, his voice full of an anger that was rarely heard from the usually kind boy. "What did you do to our friends?!" he demanded.  
  
Zurui chuckled, her orb glowing brighter as Yugi screamed at her.  
  
"I did nothing to them, except give them their roles in the mission," she replied calmly, tapping her nails on her orb with a small smile on her face. "Now you must take yours."  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes.  
  
"What role?" he demanded, clenching his free fist.  
  
There was another soft chuckle as the room shook, and there was a whirl of color on the blank wall in the back of the room, and as the colors faded away, eight swirling vortexes appeared, each looking ominous, and reminding Amber of a time in Anubis's lair when they had needed to follow vortexes similar to those to find Anubis and Pearl, who had unwittingly gone with Anubis, thinking he was a friend.  
  
"What...what are those for?" Bakura asked meekly, biting his lip.  
  
Mai sighed, scratching the back of her neck anxiously.  
  
"I don't know, but this whole "other dimension" deal is really start to freak me out," she replied nervously. "What're we supposed to do? Go in them?"  
  
"That is exactly what you will do," Zurui's echoing voice replied, a hint of laughter in her voice. "Each one of you will go through a vortex, and only one is allowed through the same vortex. There is one for each of you. You will go through and be transported to a different world in my dimension. In that world you will each find one of your lost friends."  
  
Yugi clenched his fists, determined to get Yami back safely.  
  
"And if we both get back through the vortexes with our friend, will you let us go back to our own world?" Mokuba asked nervously, quivering as the vortexes swirled.  
  
Zurui chuckled.  
  
"IF all of you get back through those portals, alive, then yes; I promise you will be returned to your own world," she replied with a smile. "Of course, that is impossible," she added to herself, her smile twisting into an evil smirk.  
  
"Then we'll accept your challenge," Yugi declared, marching up to the first portal. "Guys, be careful!" he called back to the others before stepping through one of the portals and disappearing into its swirling blackness.  
  
Serenity gulped, feeling nervous, but she closed her eyes and dashed through the next portal.  
  
"Onnichan!" she cried before she disappeared, leaving the other five behind in the room.  
  
Bakura gulped, looking at the portals with narrowed eyes.  
  
"Wait, something isn't right," he spoke up, Seto, Mokuba, Amber, and Mai turning to look at him.  
  
"What?" Mai asked rather irritably. "The fact that we've been kidnapped, forced into an unfair challenge, or that we have to walk blindly into a creepy portal?"  
  
Bakura shook his head, his white hair tossing from side to side.  
  
"No, not that," he replied, walking toward the portals. "There are eight portals here," Bakura explained, pointing to them. "Yugi and Serenity went through two, so that means there are six left."  
  
Mokuba nodded.  
  
"So?" Amber asked, not following the white-haired boy's logic.  
  
Bakura narrowed his eyes, thinking.  
  
"The spirit of the puzzle, Duke, Taerro, Pearl, Tea, Joey, Tristan, and the high priest's spirit were all taken into the other worlds, right?" he asked, looking around.  
  
Mokuba nodded slowly.  
  
"Eight," Seto suddenly said, glancing at the portals again. "There are eight portals and eight victims, but for some reason, there were only seven of us to go to rescue them."  
  
Bakura nodded.  
  
"My point exactly," he replied, facing the portals. "That means...we're missing someone who SHOULD be in here with us."  
  
Mai sighed, walking toward the third portal.  
  
"Look guys, I don't know who that could be, or what you guys want to do, but I want to leave this place, and the best way to do that is to go through this portal and rescue whoever's on the other end," she declared, stepping through the portal with a wink as she waved back at the other's nervously. "So see you, and good luck."  
  
Bakura sighed, looking down at his Millennium Ring.  
  
"I have a bad feeling," he murmured to himself, feeling awkward. "If the Pharaoh and the priest got bodies, then..."  
  
Seto sighed, pulling the Millennium Rod out of his briefcase and snapping it shut again before looking down at his brother, his eyes worried and sad.  
  
"Mokuba," he stared, putting his hands on the younger boy's shoulders, but Mokuba shook his head.  
  
"I know, niisama," he replied, looking up at Seto sadly. "We can't go together. But that's okay. I'll be really careful, I promise."  
  
Seto gritted his teeth. The last thing he wanted to do was to put his younger brother in danger, and who knew what was looming on the other end of the portal, just waiting to attack the defenseless boy.  
  
"Mokuba," Seto repeated, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his deck.  
  
The brown-haired boy fished through it and took out a card, and pressed it into his brother's hand. Mokuba blinked, turning the card over and looking at it curiously.  
  
"A Blue Eyes White Dragon?" Mokuba asked, looking up at Seto curiously, his eyes narrowed.  
  
Seto nodded, looking down at his brother.  
  
"Yes," he replied, smiling vaguely. "I don't know if this realm has anything to do with the ancient duel monsters game, or if it will be of use to you at all, but...I'd feel better knowing you had something protecting you..."  
  
Seto sighed to himself, wondering if Mokuba understood at all what he meant, but the younger boy smiled, and threw his arms around Seto's waist, hugging him tightly.  
  
"Don't worry, niisama," he said with a smile, his eyes watering as he pulled away. "Thanks. And be careful."  
  
Seto nodded seriously, turning to the second-to-last portal.  
  
"You too, Mokuba," he replied narrowing his eyes as he watching his brother step through the portal and vanished. "You too..."  
  
Bakura nodded at Seto and walked through his own portal, disappearing from the room. Seto, taking a deep breath, replaced his deck and then, feeling uneasy about the whole thing, stepped through the seventh portal and vanished from the room.  
  
************  
  
Zurui smiled contently, tapping her fingers on her orb once again.  
  
  
  
"Ah, brotherly-love is such a high emotion," she murmured, the glow of her orb dying down again. "Perfect. Not only do these children possess the legendary Millennium Items, but they are perfect for regenerating my orb's power."  
  
She smiled, watching the portals in which the seven remaining had just gone through turn red, indicating someone was in there. She smiled, scanning the line until she reached the eighth portal, which, for some reason, was still black.  
  
Leaning closer to her orb's picture, she narrowed her eyes.  
  
"What?" she asked softly. "Was there someone who DIDN'T go through the portal yet?" she murmured, scanning the room and seeing no one left. "Or are my powers malfunctioning? No, that can't be it," she corrected herself, feeling irritated.  
  
Then, she took a deep breath, sucking in the perfumed air around her and restoring her serenity.  
  
"No matter," she murmured to herself, closing her eyes delicately. "If the eighth person is never rescued, that is none of my concern."  
  
She grinned maniacally as her orb's picture began to swirl and change once again.  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter Five  
  
^_^ REVIEW!  
  
Red: ^^; Please do. And next chapter probably up on Thursday if we don't get around to it tomorrow evening.  
  
Priest Seto: o_o; 


	6. Chapter Six: The Quest Begins

Chapter Six: The Quest Begins  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for reviewing, everyone!  
  
Red: And here's Chapter Six. ^_~ Serenity has a pretty big role in this chapter.  
  
Priest Seto: X_X *doesn't know whether to be flattered or not by all the hugs.*  
  
************  
  
Chapter Six: The Quest Begins  
  
Yami Bakura smirked as he passed through a spinning mass of darkness and reappeared in a strange dungeon-like hallway. Raising an eyebrow, he pulled his Millennium Ring out from under his sweatshirt and held it out in front of him, the needles glowing brightly and quivering.  
  
"All right, ring," he muttered, scanning the different direction, the squeak of mice audible, probably because the path was so filthy. "Show me the direction of the source of power in this realm."  
  
Instantly, all five pointers, as though seized by something and pulled upwards, rose, quivering, and went back and forth, scanning the area closely. Then, three of the pointers fell back down and ceased to glow and the two remaining pointed left, toward a dark and dank part of the dungeon.  
  
Yami Bakura smirked, letting the ring fall against his chest as he walked forward in the direction his ring had told him to go in.  
  
"This is all too simple," he murmured to himself as he walked along. "But perhaps I am underestimating the source of this energy," he added, narrowing his eyes. "But no matter how strong they may be, they are still no match for me."  
  
************  
  
Serenity, still running, suddenly opened her eyes slowly to find that she was no longer in the black portal, but outside on a dirt path through a forest of some sort. Birds chirped all around her, and a gentle breeze blew through her hair.  
  
"What...is this place?" Serenity murmured, her eyes wide as her hair blew back with the wind. "It's like a...forest; a pretty forest."  
  
A squirrel ran by and onto the dirt path. It stopped, looked up at Serenity and she could have sworn it smiled, if that was possible for a squirrel. Serenity giggled despite the situation and bent down next to the squirrel, extending her hand.  
  
"Hi," she called, smiling, hoping it would be trusting enough to come a little closer. "Do you know where this place is?" she asked, even though she didn't expect an answer.  
  
  
  
She just wanted something to say, to keep up the friendly conversation to make the squirrel less afraid, and that was the first and only thing on her mind at the time.  
  
The squirrel hopped a little closer, only a few inches from Serenity's hand, when suddenly, the whole ground shook, leaves rustling in the trees and birds taking flight, and a horrifying growl sounded through the area.  
  
The squirrel chirped nervously and in the blink of an eye, he was already off the path and pouncing in the opposite direction. Serenity stood up shakily, trying to figure out what would have made the squirrel run off like that, when two trees beside her fell and a humongous bear emerged, looking ravenously around.  
  
"Oh!" Serenity cried in horror, her voice quivering as she backed away from the bear.  
  
The bear, at the sound of her voice, immediately turned his hungry eyes toward her. Serenity could feel her heart thudding in her chest as she debated what to do. Before she was finished thinking, the bear lunged, and she stumbled as she hurried down the dirt path, terrified.  
  
"Help!" she screamed in terror, running as fast as she could from the beast.  
  
She could tell from the stomping behind her that the beast was in close pursuit, but she didn't slow down. No, she continued running for her life, passing tree after tree, deer running from the scene at the noise and birds flying out of the shaking trees, running for cover.  
  
Suddenly, a huge mountain loomed up ahead, and Serenity snuck a glance behind her to see how far off the bear was. To her horror, it was even closer than before, and not showing any signs of letting up.  
  
Swallowing hard, she noticed foot and hand holes in the mountain, as though it had been carved for climbing. Taking a deep breath, she hurried up to them and began climbing as fast as she could. She was about halfway up the steep mountain when the bear rammed into the mountain, causing her to almost loose her balance and fall.  
  
"No, I won't fall," Serenity said determinedly, narrowing her eyes as she began to climb again. "I need to...rescue...my onnichan..."  
  
A few tense minutes later, Serenity used her last bit of strength to pull herself up and over the top of the mountain, where she collapsed onto the grassy field.  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Yugi looked around, blinking, as he took in his surroundings. He was standing on a blackened rock, molten, bubbling lava all around him, a few other blackened rocks nearby.  
  
"Where am I gonna find Yami?" Yugi muttered to himself, narrowing his eyes and clenching his fists. "There's nothing around for miles except rocks and lava!"  
  
Yugi gasped as a huge bubble burst behind him, and lava exploded into the air. Narrowing his eyes again, he took a deep breath and leapt from his rock to the nearest one, landing uneasily on it just before another bubble of lava burst.  
  
"Okay, this isn't so hard," he told himself reassuringly. "Just like a video game."  
  
Yugi jumped several more rocks, only barely making the last jump before sitting down and looking around, panting from the effort.  
  
"Yami?" he called, his voice echoing around. "Joey? Tea?!"  
  
There was no response to his calls, and the boy sighed, his shoulders sagging.  
  
"There've got to be here somewhere," he muttered, biting his lip when suddenly, there was a noise behind him, like the sound a duel disk made when it was activated.  
  
Yugi's eyes lit up and he turned around to see none other than Yami, standing on a rock a few feet away from Yugi's, his eyes deep and unseeing as he shuffled a deck and put it down into the deck reader.  
  
"Yami!" Yugi cried happily, grinning when Yami suddenly spoke to him.  
  
"You will duel me," Yami said coldly, his voice emotionless.  
  
Yugi, heartbroken, narrowed his eyes.  
  
"Yami? What's wrong with you?" he demanded, looking at his friend closely. "Don't you want to get out of here?"  
  
"The winner will leave, the loser will be cast into the darkest realm of this world," Yami continued, drawing five cards from his deck. "Your duel disk," he muttered, nodding at Yugi's arm, where a duel disk appeared. "Now duel."  
  
Yugi gritted his teeth. Obviously this was Zurui's sick plot: to use Yami and the others against all the rest in one-against-one duels where the loser would be lost to the darkness, or wherever.  
  
"Yami, you've been brainwashed!" Yugi cried, clenching his fists as he pleaded with his ancient self. "You don't want to fight me! You know you don't! Zurui's messed with your mind!"  
  
Yami didn't look moved by any of Yugi's words.  
  
"Draw your cards, and we will begin," he said plainly, and sadly, Yugi put his deck into his deck slot.  
  
"I'm not going to beat you, Yami," Yugi declared, pulling out his five cards. "And I'm not going to let you beat me either. We're BOTH going to get out of here, together."  
  
Yami blinked, drawing a sixth card.  
  
"Only one will win. Only one escapes," Yami repeated, looking down at his hands. "And the one who will lose, will be you."  
  
************  
  
Serenity panted for breath, pulling herself to her feet and looking around. There was a cement ring of some sort in the center, creating a circular area in the middle of all the grass, and standing in the center of it, wearing a duel disk, was...  
  
"Tristan!" Serenity cried, running toward him, relieved to have found someone she knew. "Oh Tristan, it was horrible! Are you okay?!"  
  
Tristan stared at her with a blank expression, looking prepared to duel, and not happy to see his friend.  
  
"Tristan?" Serenity asked in a quivering voice. "What's wrong with you?"  
  
"Duel me," Tristan declared in a hollow voice, his duel disk lighting up. "The winner will be allowed to go stay, and the loser will be thrown into the darkness."  
  
Serenity gasped, putting her hand to her mouth in shock.  
  
"Tristan what are you saying?!" she cried, shaking. "This isn't like you at all!"  
  
Tristan stared blankly at her.  
  
"We will duel now," he declared, preparing to draw his cards, but Serenity rushed over to him and grabbed his arm, pulling it down again.  
  
"No, Tristan!" she cried, tears welling up in her eyes. "I don't want to duel you! I just want to go home, with everyone else! I don't want to duel you!"  
  
Tristan, for a moment, looked as though his old spark had returned to those blank eyes, but a second later, Serenity was sure she had imagined it. A tear fell down her cheek.  
  
"Please don't do this, Tristan," she pleaded, hoping to get through to him. "Please."  
  
Tristan gritted his teeth and closed his eyes for a second, trying to get rid of the strong force that was telling him to duel and defeat Serenity. I don't want to duel Serenity! He yelled back at the darkness that threatened to take him over once again.  
  
"Please," Serenity repeated, closing her eyes as she clung to Tristan's arm, refraining him from starting the duel.  
  
Duel...  
  
"No way!" Tristan yelled in his mind, the darkness vanishing.  
  
He blinked, looking around the grassy fields around him, and then down at Serenity, who was still holding tight to his arm. Confused, he scratched his cheek nervously, wondering why Serenity was crying.  
  
"Serenity?" he asked gently, hoping she wouldn't be afraid of him now, and Serenity opened her eyes, surprised.  
  
"T...Tristan?" she asked meekly, looking up at him, a tear falling to the cement ground.  
  
Tristan gave a small smile.  
  
"Hey," he said casually, looking around. "So where are we?"  
  
Serenity quivered for a second, and then before she could stop herself, she hugged Tristan tightly, feeling relieved that she wasn't alone now, or having to fight her friend.  
  
Tristan looked surprised, but he didn't mind.  
  
"It's okay," he said reassuringly, smiling.  
  
*************  
  
Meanwhile, Seto walked down a dungeon-like path, similar to the place where Yami Bakura had found himself. Seto scanned the area for anyone, but sighed upon finding nothing. So far, he'd not seen any sign of the people who had been captured, or of anyone else, for that matter.  
  
Biting his lip, he wondered where Mokuba had gone to through his portal. Seto pushed the thought of his mind for now, and simply convinced himself that Mokuba was all right no matter where he was. Sighing, Seto looked around again, getting fed up with searching.  
  
"If you're here then come out already!" Seto called, narrowing his eyes and holding the rod out in front of him, a soft glow emitting from the golden eye on top.  
  
There was a clacking of footsteps from around the corner behind him, and Seto turned around sharply to see a long shadow appearing on the ground as someone walked slowly up to the corner. Prepared to attack, Seto gripped the rod's handle tightly as the figure came into view.  
  
Seto gasped.  
  
"P...priest?!" he gasped, shocked, as he watched Priest Seto walked slowly toward him, his blue eyes blank and his expression emotionless.  
  
Priest Seto stopped walking forward and faced Seto, looking neither glad nor angry to see his reincarnate. Narrowing his eyes, Seto lowered rod back down at his side, confused.  
  
"What are you doing?" Seto asked as a duel disk suddenly appeared on the high priest's arm.  
  
"We will duel," Priest Seto declared in a harsh voice, quite unlike his usual one. "The winner is allowed to go back. The loser, will be cast into the darkness, where no one returns."  
  
Seto couldn't believe his ears. The priest wanted to duel him? In this situation?! Something isn't right here, Seto muttered to himself.  
  
"Why?" Seto asked coldly, narrowing his eyes as Priest Seto drew his hand. "Why do you want to duel?"  
  
Priest Seto stared blankly at Seto, not replying. A moment later, Seto sighed, figuring that his suspicions were true: Zurui must have brainwashed all her captives and was now forcing them to fight their friends to the death...or whatever cast into the darkness was supposed to mean.  
  
It reminded Seto of the dark games that Yami Malik used to play against his opponents in Battle City.  
  
"I see now," Seto muttered, sighing. "You've brainwashed them all, haven't you?" he called, knowing Zurui could hear him.  
  
There was a soft laugh as Zurui nodded in her dark room, the orb staying rather dim.  
  
"Very clever, Seto Kaiba," she murmured, raising an eyebrow. "I suppose you figured your devoted friend wouldn't CHOOSE to fight you on his own free will. No, I expected as much. Here in this dimension of mine, first of all, the difference between your body and spirit is very minimal, so your spirits live just like your bodies do. And you're right, they've all been brainwashed for my ultimate scheme."  
  
Seto clenched his fist.  
  
"And what is that?" he demanded, raising an eyebrow.  
  
Zurui chuckled.  
  
"Since you can't get out of it, there's no point in keeping secrets," she purred. "My powers thrive off human emotion. Every time one of you scream, or get angry, upset, or anything, my powers grow. And what better way to extract emotion from you than to force you to duel a game to the death against your dearest friends?"  
  
Zurui's maniac laughter filled the room as Seto gritted his teeth.  
  
*************  
  
End of Chapter 6  
  
  
  
^_^ Okay, sorry this took so long to get up, but I promise the next chapter will be up sooner!  
  
"REVIEW!"  
  
Priest Seto: X_X I've been brainwashed...? 


	7. Chapter Seven: Desperate Struggle

Chapter Seven: Desperate Struggle  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for reviewing! Lol, I have been watching a bunch of Doma/Doom episodes lately (^-^!!) so maybe that's why it's similar. XD  
  
"Stuff you watch influences your work. XD And here we go with Chapter Seven!"  
  
*************  
  
Chapter Seven: Desperate Struggle  
  
Seto frowned as Zurui's laughter echoed over and over again in the dungeon hallway as it faded from loud to soft, until it had finally stopped entirely. Now, Seto faced Priest Seto with a sigh.  
  
"If there's no way around this, then I guess I'll have to duel," he said simply, drawing his hand. "I hope you're prepared, seeing as how your last duel was nearly 3000 years ago."  
  
Priest Seto made no comment and instead drew another card to start his turn.  
  
"I summon Archfiend Soldier in attack mode," The priest declared, a dark monster with 1900/1500 attack and defense points appearing on the field in front of him, a dark cape covering most of it. "And I'll place a card face down. Your turn."  
  
Seto picked his own card, debating about how he should approach the duel.  
  
"I dueled against Noa and recovered Mokuba's memory," he thought to himself, staring at his hand. "But that was different. Mokuba is my brother and he's known me all his life."  
  
Seto glanced up at the priest.  
  
"But there must be something I can do to get him to fight off Zurui's influence," he muttered, playing a card on the field. "I summon Y-Dragon Head in attack mode," Seto declared, his red machine appearing in front of him, 1500/1600. "And I play a card face down too. Your move."  
  
Priest Seto didn't looked phased by the move, and instead drew another card from his deck.  
  
"I activate my facedown card, Mystical Space Typhoon," Priest Seto declared, holding out his hand as he magic card was revealed. "Your set card is now destroyed."  
  
Seto clenched his fist in irritation as his Rush Recklessly magic card, which he'd played to increase Y-Dragon Head's attack strength, was destroyed.  
  
"Now I summon La Jinn, the Mystical Genie of the Lamp in attack mode," Priest Seto continued blankly, his green monster now appearing in front of him as well. "La Jinn will destroy your Y-Dragon Head, and then Archfiend Soldier will attack your life points directly!" he declared, Seto narrowing his eyes.  
  
***********  
  
Mai walked slowly along a sunny beach, the ocean making a soft noise in the background, a gently breeze blowing against her face as she walked barefoot through the sand. She'd taken off her high-heeled shoes since they kept getting stuck, and was now looking around curiously for anyone.  
  
"Hello?" she called, her voice echoing around once without receiving a reply. "Is anyone out there? Joey? Duke? Pearl?"  
  
Mai shivered, her eyebrows narrowing in nervousness.  
  
"Anyone?" she called, feeling a tingle go down her spine.   
  
She hated being alone; without anyone else around. It was one of the worst feelings in the world to her.  
  
************  
  
Zurui, who had been watching the scene from her orb grinned maliciously as she rubbed the orb gently, causing the green mist inside to grow foggier, clouding the scene from view.  
  
"For this woman, I think I'll arrange a different kind of battle," she murmured, leaning back as the fog cleared once again. "After all, it is rather boring simply watching children play their way to defeat with a card game."  
  
***********  
  
There was a rustle in the bushes behind her and Mai whirled around, gasping.  
  
"Is anyone there?!" she called in panic, backing away as something caused the bushes to rustle around again.  
  
Mai, gulping, saw a dark figure walking around behind the bushes. Trembling, she took a deep breath, narrowing her eyes.  
  
"Enough with the hide-and-seek," she snapped, trying to sound tough. "Just come out and show yourself already."  
  
The bushes rustled around against as a blonde-haired boy stepped out of the forest and onto the beach, causing Mai to gasp as she realized who it was in front of her.  
  
"J...Joey?!" she cried, her eyes widening as she looked at the boy.  
  
Joey's normally sparkling brown eyes were dull and possessed-looking just as Yami's and Priest Seto's had been for Yugi and Seto. He narrowed his eyes at the blonde-haired girl as he curled his hand into a fist.  
  
Mai narrowed her eyes as he started to walk toward her.  
  
"Joey, what are you doing?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Now that I've found you, can't we go back to the dining room place again? If we all get out, then we can go home."  
  
Joey narrowed his eyes, glaring at Mai as if she were some sort of enemy rather than his friend that he'd known for years. There was a flash of green light and suddenly, sticking up in the sand next to Joey was a sharp sword.  
  
Joey reached over and grasped the handle, pulling it up out of the sand and over his head, the metal glinting in the sunlight as Mai backed up even further.  
  
"Joey!" she scolded nervously, her eyes wide. "What do you think you're doing?!"  
  
Joey gestured toward the ground next to Mai, and nervously, she looked behind her to see a sword identical to the one Joey was now wielding stuck in the sand.  
  
"You want to fight me?" she gasped, gaping at the weapon.  
  
Joey nodded, holding his sword out in front of him in an attacking position.  
  
"Yes," he replied in a dark voice, quite unlike his usual happy and light one. "We will fight each other with these swords, and the one to get hit three times will be the one who is cast into the darkness. The winner will be freed and may go back."  
  
Mai narrowed her eyes, clenching her fists.  
  
"Joey, something is DEFINITELY wrong with you," she declared, backing up again, Joey advancing. "You're starting to freak me out with this "cast into the darkness" and "sword-fighting" stuff."  
  
Joey looked emotionlessly down at the sword.  
  
"Draw your sword, Mai Valentine," he declared impatiently. "If a victor is not chosen in ten minutes, then we both will be sent to the darkness."  
  
Mai grasped the handle of the sword, not sure what she wanted to do. Stall, I suppose, she decided to herself, looking up at Joey again.  
  
"What's this darkness supposed to mean?" she asked skeptically, slowly pulling the sword out of the marshy sand.  
  
Joey chuckled.  
  
"It's a place of torment," he replied, waving his sword back and forth in a quick motion. "No one escapes. It is the most horrible part of this dimension, and one who is sent there because of a game is considered dead."  
  
Mai gulped.  
  
"Joey must be brainwashed or something," Mai thought to herself, pulling her sword out of the sand. "Because he probably wouldn't even know what the word "torment" even means, and he wouldn't joke like this."  
  
"Let's go, Mai," Joey declared, clashing his sword against Mai's, surprising her.  
  
"Uh!" she cried, narrowing her eyes, gripping the handle of her sword tightly. "Okay Joey, let's go."  
  
************  
  
  
  
Mokuba shivered as he walked along an icy path through what appeared to be the tundra. With each breath he could see the smoke linger in front of him for a few minutes before the warmth was swallowed by the cold and it vanished.  
  
Clutched tightly in his hand was the Blue Eyes White Dragon card that his brother had given him. Even if it only looked like a card, Mokuba felt safer as he held it, as if his brother was with him, protecting him.  
  
"So cold," Mokuba murmured, rubbing his arms furiously, trying to keep warm. "Hello?!" he called, his voice echoing around the area and off the snow-topped mountains that seemed to surround him, locking him into the snowy plain. "Is anyone out there?!"  
  
  
  
"Yes," Came a silky voice as a familiar-looking white-haired girl walked out toward him, not shrinking in the cold, despite the fact she was wearing a short-sleeved white shirt. "Someone is indeed out here," she said in perfect Japanese.  
  
Mokuba's eyes widened as he recognized the girl in front of him.  
  
"P...Pearl?!" he cried in disbelief, wondering what in the world the white-haired girl could be smiling about.  
  
The white pearl around her neck gleamed brightly, as if reacting to the coldness around Pearl.  
  
"That is correct, Mokuba," Pearl replied, again, without any trouble speaking at all.  
  
She pressed a button on the duel disk that was on her right arm and it lit up as it activated.  
  
"You and I will now duel," she explained, drawing five cards from her deck, narrowing her brown eyes at Mokuba. "And the loser will be thrown away into the darkness part of this realm."  
  
Mokuba gasped, knowing Pearl must be possessed, seeing as how the girl usually took nearly three minutes just to remember how to say "How are you?" in Japanese, and never so perfectly spoken. That evil person must be controlling Pearl and making her duel me, Mokuba deducted to himself, surprised as a duel disk appeared on his arm, his own meekly constructed deck appearing in his deck slot.  
  
"Draw your cards and duel," Pearl declared, looking over at Mokuba impatiently.  
  
Mokuba gulped, seeing that there was no way out of this duel. He'd just have to try his best, but at the same time, how could he save himself AND Pearl from the "darkness?"  
  
As Mokuba reached down to draw five cards from his deck, he realized that he was still holding his older brother's Blue Eyes White Dragon card.  
  
"Niisama," he murmured, looking at the foil picture of the magnificent dragon. "Please, help me in this duel," he pleaded in his mind, shuffling the dragon into his deck before picking his cards to start the game.  
  
"Okay Pearl," he said, gulping as he looked down at his hand. "I'll duel you, but I know you don't want either of us to end up in the darkness."  
  
Pearl laughed, picking her sixth card, her eyes still foggy and possessed-looking.  
  
"You have no idea," she murmured in an evil voice that was quite unlike her own.  
  
***********  
  
Yugi swallowed as he looked over at Yami sadly, wondering how not only he was going to get his friend to break free of Zurui's influence, but also how they both could escape this duel. Unless there was a tie, (in which case Yugi couldn't figure out whether both of them would be freed, or both end up in the "darkness") or the duel was canceled somehow, it looked as though one of them was going to end up lost.  
  
"I'll go first," Yami declared, picking his card. "I summon Magnet Warrior, Beta, in attack mode," he said simply and emotionlessly, his green magnet monster appearing in front of him, 1700/1600.  
  
Yugi bit his lip. He remembered several occasions in which he AND Yami had been dueling together and had played that monster. But now, it was being used against him.  
  
"I play another card face down and end my turn," Yami declared coldly, looking up at Yugi with his hard, purple eyes. "Your move, boy."  
  
Yugi felt a jab of hurt as he drew his card. Usually Yami affectionately called him "aibou," but now, under Zurui's influence, he was simply calling him "boy."  
  
"I play a monster in defense mode," Yugi sighed, closing his eyes sadly. "Your turn."  
  
  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Yami Bakura continued to walk down the dungeon-like path, scanning the corridors in front of him continually.  
  
"I am getting closer to the source of this power, I can sense it," he murmured, grinning. "But I also sense that there are other forces of great power in this place as well. No matter. One source will lead to another, I assume," he murmured, the Millennium Ring glowing brightly.  
  
************  
  
Zurui raised an eyebrow, having felt something out of plan jab at her like a reminder for something forgotten. Narrowing her eyes, she rubbed her orb gently and a new picture formed.  
  
Zurui raised an eyebrow as she saw the vague outline of Yami Bakura walking down the corridor, the Millennium Ring around his neck glowing brightly as it emitted ancient magical energies.  
  
"So HERE is the eighth," she muttered, narrowing her eyes in irritation. "I suppose there's a rogue in every bunch," she commented, noting that he hadn't cared enough about any of the others to go through the portal in an attempt to save them, even though all attempts were futile anyhow.  
  
Zurui sighed as if Yami Bakura were some kind of annoyance, like a mosquito, rather than a vicious spirit.  
  
"Well then, I'll just have to send a few of my soldiers to diminish him," Zurui said, three dark figures appearing in front of her. "Go, and throw him into the darkness. If he resists, kill him."  
  
Zurui's lips curled into a cruel sneer.  
  
"Since there is such a little boundary between body and spirit in this realm, spirits act as bodies, and can be injured in the same way," she explained, to no one in particular as the dark figures she'd summoned nodded and stomped off to stalk their newest victim. "It is very easy for one to die here, and even easier for one's emotions to become my power!"  
  
************  
  
^_^ Okay then, REVIEW!  
  
Priest Seto: X_X Still brainwashed? And dueling my reincarnate?  
  
Red: ^^ Review! Next chapter up soon! 


	8. Chapter Eight: Devotion and Sacrifice

Chapter Eight: Devotion and Sacrifice  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for reviewing! And all the archfiends really are cards. XD I wonder if there'll ever really be an Archfiend Chess game in the show...  
  
"And here's chapter eight!" *nudges Priest Seto*  
  
Priest Seto: Oh yeah! And, ^^;; Thanks for the hugs.  
  
************  
  
Chapter Eight: Devotion and Sacrifice  
  
Seto winced as he backed up slightly from the Archfiend Soldier's attack, his life points falling to 1800. Priest Seto stared emotionlessly forward at him, setting a card face down on the field as his monsters came back.  
  
  
  
"One card face down. Your move," he said coldly, Seto gritting his teeth as he looked down at his cards.  
  
"I'm holding back," Seto thought to himself, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head. "I don't mean to be, but I am. But how can I really play to win in this situation..."  
  
Seto looked up at Priest Seto as he drew his card, looking at the field. His monsters are strong, Seto thought to himself, playing one of his own monsters on the field. But this move will at least protect me next turn, and get rid of his soldier.  
  
"I summon Spear Dragon in attack mode," Seto declared, his pointy-nosed dragon appearing in front of him, its attack and defense 1900/0. "Then I play one card face down before attack your La Jinn!"  
  
Priest Seto didn't look phased by the move as his life points fell to 3900 from the Spear Dragon's attack. Spear Dragon then shifted into defense mode due to its effect.  
  
"Your move," Seto declared, narrowing his eyes.  
  
Priest Seto picked his card and set another monster on the field.  
  
"X-Head Cannon in attack mode," he declared, but the words had barely left his mouth when Seto's face down card flipped up.  
  
"Trap Hole!" Seto declared, the X-Head Cannon disappearing from the field into the endless hole.  
  
  
  
Priest Seto shrugged.  
  
"No matter," he replied, looking at his Archfiend Soldier. "Attack his Spear Dragon!" Priest Seto declared, the fiend monster slashing through the Spear Dragon, destroying him.  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes as the Archfiend Soldier returned to the priest's side of the field.  
  
"Your move," Priest Seto declared in his cold tone of voice.  
  
*************  
  
Yami Bakura was continuing his walk down the dungeon-like hallway when suddenly there was a clanking of metal on the dungeon floor, and the white-haired tomb-robber looked up to see several soldier-like machines stomping toward him, their swords raised.  
  
  
  
Yami Bakura smirked, raising an eyebrow as the machines surrounded him, poised for attack.  
  
"And this is the army sent to defend the palace?" he laughed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his Duel Monster's deck. "Well, as much as I enjoy a decent fight, I'm actually glad to have a push-over game for now. I want to save most of my energy for fighting against your master," he chuckled, taunting the machines as the Millennium Ring lit up brilliantly.  
  
"Go! Possessed Dark Soul!" he declared, a fiery fiend appearing in front of him. "I'm assuming if you weaklings were Duel Monsters, you'd be a level three monster. Level threes have strength, but not much of it; like you all."  
  
The soldiers stared at him with their dark, blank faces.  
  
"I activate Possessed Dark Soul's special ability!" Yami Bakura declared, narrowing his eyes. "I'll sacrifice him to gain control of all level three monsters, or you all, in this case!"  
  
The soldiers suddenly all turned to stare at Yami Bakura, awaiting their orders from their new master. An evil smile crossed Yami Bakura's face as he looked around at the soldiers.  
  
"Destroy each other," he declared with a maniac laugh as he walked past them, the soldiers beginning to attack each other with their own weapons. "You may have come in handy later, but I prefer to fight with my own team of fiends. Have a nice battle."  
  
Yami Bakura chuckled to himself as he continued walking away from the battling soldiers, towards the source of energy that was becoming stronger with every step he took.  
  
************  
  
Mai gasped as Joey lunged for her arm, ducking in the sand and scooting away from him, sweating. So far, she'd managed to avoid getting hit or hitting him, but even she knew that wasn't going to get either of them very far. If a winner wasn't chosen soon, the time would run out and they'd BOTH end up in the dark realm.  
  
  
  
"Joey," Mai panted, his sword clashing against hers, the sound of metal against metal ringing out from the collision. "You know...you don't want to really fight me, right?"  
  
Joey stared blankly at her as he pulled his sword back and lunged again, this time cutting Mai lightly across the shoulder. Mai winced, backing away, holding a hand to her bleeding shoulder.  
  
"Joey..." she murmured, her eyes wide with fear, and confusion.  
  
  
  
There has to be a way for both of us to win, Mai thought to herself, holding her shaking sword in front of her as a protection. I just have to figure out what that is, and fast!  
  
*************  
  
Bakura blinked as he looked around, finding himself a in completely white room, aside from the black and white squares on the floor that vaguely resembled a chess board, or a checkers board. Gulping, he cleared his throat.  
  
"Um...hello?" he called, feeling nervous as a whistle of wind blew through the room, ruffling his white hair.  
  
"Are you ready to play, Bakura?" Came a familiar voice as a dark figure walked forward, the chess board in front of Bakura glowing and suddenly, several strange-looking duel monsters appeared on the board in the places of where one would put chess pieces.  
  
Bakura blinked, looking from the chess board to his black-haired friend who was approaching the other side of the board.  
  
"Taerro!" Bakura cried, smiling, relieved to see his friend. "There you are!"  
  
Taerro narrowed his eyes, looking much more like when he was possessed by the Vampire Lord's spirit than his usual, friendly appearance. Bakura bit his lip, wondering what was going on.  
  
"Taerro?" he asked quietly, the whitish monster on Taerro's side of the field suddenly moving forward two spaces.  
  
"Vilepawn Archfiend moves to E4 on the Archfiend Chessboard," Taerro declared, folding his arms across his chest as the strange fiend monster moved to the indicated square. "You and I are to play a game of Archfiend Chess, and the loser, will be punished by spending the short remainder of their lives in the darkest part of this realm," he explained.  
  
Bakura gasped.  
  
"Archfiend Chess?!" he cried in disbelief. "Taerro, this isn't like you!"  
  
Taerro stared at Bakura with his cold eyes.  
  
"Just make your move, Ryou Bakura," he demanded, narrowing his eyes.  
  
Bakura gulped, feeling a shiver of loneliness and hurt go through him. Clearly something was possessing Taerro or influencing him to do this, seeing as how the two had been friends for quite some time, and the black-haired boy would never pull a stunt like this.  
  
"I play Vilepawn Archfiend C6," Bakura said quietly, his eyes sad as his darker fiend monster moved to the correct square. "Taerro, I don't want to play a game of life or death with you, but I'm always happy to play a friendly game of chess with you, you know that."  
  
Taerro didn't look interested in what Bakura had to say as he ordered his monsters forward.  
  
"White Vilepawn moves to D4!" he declared, his pawn moving forward recklessly.  
  
Bakura sighed, hoping he could figure out some way out of this horrible mess, before one of them was checkmated!  
  
************  
  
Yami picked his card and put it in his hand before studying the field with his blank eyes.  
  
"I activate my trap card," he declared, flipping open his face down card. "Dark Magic Ritual. I sacrifice Beta and Magnet Warrior Alpha from my hand to summon the ritual monster Magician of Black Chaos."  
  
Yugi bit his lip, knowing that not only was his friend possessed, but also a much better duelist. But even if I had the chance to win the game, Yugi thought to himself, a bead of sweat dripping down his cheek. I wouldn't take it. How are we going to get out of this mess? He asked himself, squeezing his eyes shut in concentration.  
  
"Now I attack your facedown monster!" Yami declared, the magician aiming his staff at the set card, which flipped face up with the attack.  
  
The Mystical Elf was destroyed in a puff of black smoke, and the Magician of Black Chaos spun his staff around in his hands for a moment before returning to Yami's side of the field.  
  
"I end my turn," Yami declared, staring coldly at Yugi, who feebly drew his card.  
  
"Yami please, you've got to fight off this influence of Zurui's and remember who you really are and what you're fighting for!" Yugi pleaded as he played a magic card on the field. "I activate Fissure, which destroys your Magician of Black Chaos."  
  
The dark monsters vanished from the field, but its master didn't look too upset. In fact, Yami showed no emotion at all, but merely continued to stare at Yugi with his cold eyes.  
  
"Then I summon Gazell, King of Mythical Beasts, in attack mode," Yugi declared, Gazell, 1500/1200, appearing in front of him. "Attack his life points directly!" he called rather reluctantly, squeezing his eyes shut. "Sorry, Yami."  
  
***********  
  
Seto sighed, looking over at the priest's possessed spirit, memories coming back to him. He remembered how over the summer he'd awakened Priest Seto's spirit accidentally with Bastet's transferred powers. True, he'd found the spirit annoying and a hindrance before, but after a while, he'd started to understand the spirit, and trusted him, which was something considering he'd only trusted Mokuba before then.  
  
~ Seto rolled over and looked up to see the spirit hovering over him, watching he and Mokuba as they slept.  
  
"Do you mind?" Seto snapped irritably.  
  
"Mind what?" Priest Seto asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Not watching me when I'm sleeping," Seto grumbled, pulling the covers up higher. "I hate that."  
  
"I used to hate being watched as well, now that I remember..." Priest Seto muttered thoughtfully.  
  
Seto sighed.  
  
"Good, then you should understand how I feel and stop it," he retorted. "Can't you go in the closet or something?"  
  
"Fine," Priest Seto snapped, floating out of the room.~  
  
Seto clenched his fist, feeling torn. He didn't want to be banished to the darkness or whatever; he still had things he needed to do, and besides which, he'd never give Zurui the satisfaction of winning in her evil scheme. But still...he also didn't want to lose the only other person that he considered a friend.  
  
"Make your move, foolish boy," Priest Seto said coldly, narrowing his icy blue eyes at Seto.  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow at the term foolish. That reminded him...and perhaps it would remind the priest too...  
  
"Foolish?" Seto repeated, grinning slyly. "I'm a reincarnate of you, remember? You'd better be careful what you call me."  
  
Priest Seto's eyes widened, not in fear, but in surprise. That was what Seto had said back when they'd first met. What was he doing, dueling against him? How was this completing his duty?  
  
A strong voice in his head, however, kept urging him on, screaming to him, "DUEL! DEFEAT!" Priest Seto shook his head, trying to block out the voice. That wasn't what he wanted to do, and he wasn't going to give into Zurui OR her evil demands...  
  
"No!" he shouted back at the voice in his mind, the hazy vision in front of him suddenly becoming clear. "Kaiba!" he called, blinking at the boy, who looked rather pleased with himself.  
  
"Priest," he replied with a nod, his smirk fading a bit. "Looks like that managed to break off the influence."  
  
A sharp laughter filled the room, Zurui's laughter, as she watched the scene from her room, greatly amused.  
  
"You go to such lengths to try to recover your friend's will," she chuckled, tapping the orb proudly. "But remember; you've already started the duel, and until someone loses, it will not end and neither can leave that hallway. And when one loses..."  
  
Seto gritted his teeth in irritation.  
  
"I know. They'll be sent to the darkness," he muttered, fed up with hearing it repeated to him over and over again.  
  
Zurui chuckled.  
  
"Correct," she replied, her lips curling into a smirk as she tapped the orb again with her black fingernails. "Now carry on, children."  
  
Priest Seto looked down at his duel disk, unsure of what to do. If the loser was banished to the darkness, then obviously he couldn't let that person be Seto. After all, he was already dead, and his duty was to protect his reincarnate and Mokuba. Seto could protect Mokuba, but not if was killed here and now.  
  
Seto bit his lip, debating on a move. Maybe there's a card in my deck that could bring the duel to a tie, he thought to himself, examining his hand, then looking back up at the priest, who smiled sadly.  
  
"There's no need to continue, as it's obvious who needs a victory more," Priest Seto said simply, putting his hand over his deck. "I forfeit."  
  
Zurui sneered, watching as the monsters in front of the two disappeared, and Priest Seto's life points dropped to zero.  
  
"That's one way to end a duel," she chuckled, rubbing the orb lightly. "And now for the loser..."  
  
Seto's eyes widened, not sure if he'd heard correctly. The priest was surrendering?!  
  
"But..." Seto started, stunned, but Priest Seto shook his head.  
  
"Farewell, Seto Kaiba," Priest Seto said with a half-smile as a large and dark cloud of smoke suddenly appeared with a puffing sound, and a moment later, disappeared.  
  
Seto's eyes widened as he realized that Priest Seto had vanished as well.  
  
************  
  
End of Chapter Eight  
  
T_T Review.  
  
Red: *nodnod* Review. And next chapter up soon! 


	9. Chapter Nine: Inside One's Heart

Chapter Nine: Inside One's Heart  
  
Notes: ^-^ Thanks for reviewing! T.T And yeah, *pats priest* That's what we like about you. I like you alive too, though. (Well, as alive as a spirit can get. ^^;)  
  
"And, yes, chapter nine is here!"  
  
  
  
************  
  
Chapter Nine: Inside One's Heart  
  
Mokuba shivered, watching Pearl slap a card on the field.  
  
"I summon Maiden of Aqua in defense mode!" she snapped, a blue-haired female-monster appearing on the field, clutching a golden trident in her right hand. "According to her effect, if there's no field magic card active, it automatically becomes Umi, the ocean field!"  
  
Mokuba gulped as the sound of rushing water filled his ears as the field was soon covered in the water. Pearl put another card on her duel disk, not looking interested in the duel at all. Just like when she acted like I didn't exist at first during the dance, he thought to himself.  
  
"Although even though the field is Umi, there are no increases or decreases to a monster's attack and defense points due to the card. Now I play a card facedown and end my turn," Pearl declared, her steely brown eyes glaring at Mokuba, who drew his card.  
  
"Pearl seems to have an ocean deck, just like Amber does," he observed, glancing at the field. "But I bet it's a little different. Her monster is in defense mode, but I better try defending too since she probably played a trap card."  
  
"I play a monster in defense mode!" Mokuba declared, setting it facedown on his duel disk. "And I'll end my turn."  
  
Pearl huffed as she drew her next card.  
  
"Knowing amateurs, your deck is probably full of monster cards, with little magic and trap cards to aid them," she pointed out, causing Mokuba to gulp as he looked at his hand.  
  
She was right. The only magic card in his hand was Soul Exchange, but he didn't have any tribute-needing monsters in his hand anyway, so that didn't matter. Other than that, though, all his cards were monsters.  
  
"I activate my trap card, Tornado Wall!" Pearl declared, her face still emotionless. "Now you can't do any damage to my life points."  
  
Mokuba bit his lip.  
  
"And then I summon Fire Princess!" Pearl called, summoning a fire-attributed monster onto the field, 1300/1500. "It's a good thing my Maiden of Aqua's Umi doesn't have Umi's regular effects, or she'd lose 200 attack points. Now attack his set card!"  
  
The Fire Princess smashed down on Mokuba's face down monster with her staff, causing it to come into view as it was destroyed.  
  
"Trap Master!" Mokuba said proudly, grinning. "Which can destroy one trap card on the field, and since there's only one, that's an easy decision: your Tornado Wall!"  
  
Pearl blinked as her trap card vanished, as well as the Trap Master. Fire Princess retreated back to where Maiden of Aqua was in front of Pearl, and the girl set another card face down.  
  
"I'll end my turn with that," she declared, looking over at Mokuba's empty field. "Your move."  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Priest Seto blinked as he opened his eyes to find himself in a completely dark area, sounds of beasts roaring and things moaning vaguely in the distance all around him. Pulling himself to his feet, the priest looked around, confused.  
  
"This is the darkness that was talked about?" he asked himself, squinting to see in the darkness.  
  
A vague light was coming toward him, and Priest Seto backed up, wondering if it were a friend, or an enemy. As the light came closer, Priest Seto suddenly recognized the white-haired form, and clenched his fists in anger.  
  
"Bakura!" he cried, recognizing the tomb robber.  
  
The ancient Yami Bakura smirked, his brown eyes full of malevolence as he raised his hand in front of him.  
  
"Come out! Earl of Demise!" The man called, a horrible-looking fiend monster rising out of the darkness.  
  
Priest Seto narrowed his eyes, backing up.  
  
"White Dragon!" he called, wind rushing around on every side of him as the white beast, his Ka, appeared beside him, roaring. "Attack the Earl of Demise!"  
  
The White Dragon reared its head back and launched an attack of white lightning, destroying the Earl of Demise with a horrible explosion. Priest Seto looked around for Yami Bakura as the smoke cleared, sure he was up to another trick.  
  
"But why is he here...?" Priest Seto asked himself, starting to get worried. "What exactly is the "darkness" of this dimension?"  
  
Yami Bakura's high-pitched laughter soon filled the room as Priest Seto whirled around, trying to find the source of it.  
  
"Pathetic priest," The maniac tomb-robber's voice taunted. "You cannot win completely. Never can you ever fully be rid of the effects of your past. You cannot deny the fact that no one trusts you, and it's all your fault..."  
  
Priest Seto clenched his fists, the White Dragon flapping its mighty wings, waiting to attack Yami Bakura again as soon as he was spotted in the whirling darkness all around them.  
  
"That's not true!" Priest Seto snapped back, knowing it wasn't.  
  
It couldn't be! He had the best intentions in mind when he'd thrown the rod at Bakura. The priest hadn't expected he'd use it against the Pharaoh and erase his memories.  
  
"But it is..." Yami Bakura's echoing voice taunted. "All...your...fault..."  
  
Images began swirling around in the darkness in front of Priest Seto and the White Dragon. Images of the palace back in Egypt, images of when he had found Kisara, the girl who originally had owned the White Dragon Ka, and when she had died...because of him...  
  
"You were the cause of that girl's death..." The horrible voice continued, Priest Seto shaking his head, trying to block out the taunts. "YOU stole her spirit..."  
  
"N...no, that's not what I wanted at all!" Priest Seto shouted back, squeezing his eyes shut to block out the images of his past.  
  
"YOU are the cause of the Pharaoh's lost memory..."  
  
"NO! I didn't mean for that to happen, I...!"  
  
"You did it whether you meant to or not!" Yami Bakura's voice yelled accusingly down at him from all around, an attack from a monster flying out of nowhere and hitting the White Dragon head-on, Priest Seto wincing as he felt the pain of his Ka.  
  
The White Dragon roared as Yami Bakura continued, as if his voice represented the terrible things in his life, all his faults...or were they?  
  
"You are the cause of the horrible things that happen to your reincarnate and his brother," The voice continued, another attack hitting the defenseless dragon, causing him to roar in pain. "YOU have dragged them all into this endless maze of ancient magic..."  
  
"NO!" Priest Seto cried, falling to his knees as another attack hit the White Dragon. "White Dragon attack!" he cried, clenching his fists in anger.  
  
He was NOT going to let Yami Bakura win again, and he wasn't going to give in to whatever evil Zurui was presenting against him. The White Dragon launched an attack at the whirling images in front of it, but that did no good. Another strong attack came from the side and hit both the priest and the White Dragon, sending them both flying backwards in the darkness.  
  
"We...can't give in..." Priest Seto muttered, trying his best to get back on his feet as the White Dragon flapped its wings weakly, trying to find the strength to fly again to attack the enemy. "We...can't let them win...no matter what..."  
  
************  
  
Zurui smirked as her orb glowed brightly, blue smoke filling it now, mixing with the original green as she watched Priest Seto and the White Dragon fight against their enemy.  
  
"Your own guilt and past is the enemy in the darkest part of your heart," Zurui murmured, smiling evilly. "And the courage you present against it despite the odds is incredible. Incredible, but profitable," she added, glancing over at her orb again. "It seems my power has increased to a new level because of your strong emotions. Well done."  
  
Zurui smirked.  
  
"Now fight bravely and die at the hands of your own enemy!" she declared, laughing to herself as a red light suddenly appeared beside her.  
  
Raising an eyebrow, she rubbed her orb and switched scenes, this time back to the dungeon where a heap of metal was sprawled on the floor. Clenching her fists, Zurui gritted her teeth.  
  
"That boy defeated my soldiers?!" she cried in anger, glaring at the mess that was once her army. "I don't believe this..."  
  
Calming herself down, Zurui looked back at the other battles that were being fought around the dimension. Smiling, she tapped the orb again with her black nails.  
  
"No matter," she murmured, smiling. "By the time he ever reaches here, my powers will have grown far past the extent needed to defeat a mortal human such as he."  
  
***********  
  
  
  
Yugi sighed as Yami's life points fell to 2500. Gazell returned to Yugi's side of the field and the spiky-haired boy set another card face down.  
  
"I play a card face down and end my turn," Yugi declared, watching Yami look quickly down at his hand before drawing another card. "Yami, please," Yugi tried again. "Don't you remember everything that we've been through together? All the battles we've fought...together."  
  
Yami didn't look phased by Yugi's speech as he set a card face down on his duel disk. Yugi sighed, knowing he had to get through to his partner somehow.  
  
"Yami, you've always been there for me before!" Yugi called, clenching his fists. "Like when we were battling Bakura, and you came to help me. You saved me..." he murmured, looking down at his deck. "Saved..."  
  
Yami blinked, Yugi's voice penetrating the thick fog that was surrounding his mind.  
  
"Aibou..." Yami murmured softly, almost inaudibly.  
  
"You've always been there for me..." Yugi murmured, looking up at Yami and raising his hand over his deck. "Well, now it's my turn to be there for you."  
  
The fog was slowly vanishing from Yami's mind as he tried to make out what Yugi was doing in front of him as Yami fought off the influence Zurui had put on him.  
  
Yugi placed his hand over his deck, smiling over at Yami, who blinked several times, finally seeing his partner clearly.  
  
"I surrender," Yugi declared, the life points falling to zero on his duel disk and his monster disappearing.  
  
Yami's eyes widened as he realized what was going on.  
  
"Aibou!" he cried, reaching out to Yugi as the same black smoke that had engulfed the priest suddenly covered his friend, and as it cleared, Yugi disappeared from sight.  
  
Yami's hands trembled in anger as he realized what had happened, and what Yugi had done.  
  
"YUGI!" he cried, clenching his fists, the Millennium Puzzle lighting up brilliantly.  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Seto stared forward, completely stunned. The Priest Seto had surrendered...for him!  
  
~It's obvious who needs the victory more...~  
  
"I...don't believe it..." Seto muttered, clenching his fist and gripping the handle of the Millennium Rod tightly, anger surging through him.  
  
Not anger at the priest; anger toward Zurui and her sick scheme. He squeezed his eyes shut, his anger and sorrow flowing through him like rushing water through a river. The Millennium Rod lit up brightly, reacting to its owner's emotions.  
  
Suddenly, in front of Seto, a huge slit appeared in the dungeon area revealing a gaping black vortex-like hole. Seto blinked, backing up slightly as he felt the rushing of wind flying from the slit.  
  
He looked down at the Millennium Rod, and then back up at the blackness inside the slit. Maybe, he thought, this is an entrance to the "darkness..."  
  
Stepping forward, he walked into the black slit, determined to see if he could find Priest Seto, or anyone else that could have been banished there. A small pang of panic rushed through him as he realized that Mokuba could have easily lost a duel to another brainwashed person, and be in that darkness as well.  
  
Clenching his fists in determination, he walked through the darkness and away from the hole he'd just made in the dimension boundaries. He only hoped that the slit wouldn't close up while he was searching, or that he'd find his friends too late.  
  
  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter Nine  
  
^_^ REVIEW!  
  
Red: And next chapter up soon! 


	10. Chapter Ten: Stalemate

Chapter Ten: Stalemate  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for reviewing! And by the way, I KNOW you can't attack in the real game when you play Soul Exchange, but in the anime, you can. So in this fic, you can too. :P  
  
"And herrrreee's chapter ten!"  
  
*************  
  
Chapter Ten: Stalemate  
  
Amber blinked, looking around as she found herself in a brightly lit and white room, much like the hallways and the room Bakura had found himself in. The walls seemed to stretch on forever, and the brown-haired girl shivered, wondering what she was supposed to do now.  
  
"Hello?" she asked, looking around, feeling around in her pocket for some marbles, just in case someone should try to sneak up on her.  
  
"You have arrived at last," Came a familiar, yet strangely different voice from behind her.  
  
Amber jumped and whirled around to see none other than Duke, sitting at a bright, white table, his hands folded in front of him and a few dice laid out on the flat surface.  
  
"Duke!" she cried, a grin forming on her face as she stepped forward. "Well, this is an easy rescue, now isn't it?" she joked, relieved.  
  
Duke stood up, his green eyes hard and cold and devoid of their usual spark. Amber narrowed her eyes, sensing something amiss.  
  
"Duke?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. "Is something wrong?"  
  
Duke picked up the three dice that had been resting on the table and gestured to them.  
  
"We will play a game using our dice and marbles, as I know you have several in your pocket right now," Duke explained, looking emotionless, not saying anything happy about seeing his friend again.  
  
Amber looked crushed.  
  
"A game? Duke what's wrong with you?" she demanded, stepping forward and putting her hands on his shoulders. "It's as if you're a completely different person...oh!"  
  
Amber gasped, realizing this must have something to do with Zurui's magic. She narrowed her blue eyes, staring into Duke's lost, green ones.  
  
"Duke, listen to me," she said seriously, her eyes narrowed. "I know YOU don't want to be doing this. You've never done something you didn't want to just to please someone else, so don't start now."  
  
"You are too late, girl," Came Zurui's voice, sounding tired and bored. "He has been brainwashed, and will not respond to anything you say. You two will battle using your little marbles and dice there. The first to hit the other three times will be declared the winner and the loser will be sent to my "darkness."  
  
Amber gulped, looking shocked.  
  
"Your darkness?" she asked, her anger surging up. "No way! Duke won't do that."   
  
She turned to glare at the black-haired boy, looking sure of herself.  
  
"Right Duke?" Amber demanded, glaring at him, her eyes narrowed.  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Bakura was deep in the middle of his complicated chess game with Taerro, the situation becoming more grim by the second. Bakura gulped as the white Shadow Knight Archfiend attacked his Vilepawn, killing it and causing it to disappear as the knight took over its square.  
  
  
  
"Your move, Bakura," Taerro snapping, looking impatient.  
  
  
  
Bakura sighed, looking sadly over at Taerro. The two of them always seemed to be getting possessed and used, Bakura thought to himself, recalling when they'd finally rid themselves of the evil spirits that had once dwelled inside of them. They had finally been free, but only for a short while, it seemed.  
  
Bakura sighed, remembering his conversation with Taerro in Egypt only a few weeks before, when the Vampire Lord had finally been defeated. Perhaps, Bakura thought to himself, looking up at his friend. Perhaps I can recall his mind...  
  
"Make your move already!" Taerro snapped, his golden glasses shaking as he clenched a fist.  
  
Bakura put on a small smile.  
  
"Taerro, you can't submit to Zurui's powers," he reminded his friend casually. "Because you always fight against the evil that threatens to possess you. You never work with it; you're always against it and fighting against it, and that's what matters."  
  
Taerro blinked, something somewhere deep down in his memory clicking, as if initiating him to fight against the strange influence forcing him to battle with his best friend.  
  
"Right, Taerro?" Bakura pressed, hoping from his friend's stunned look that Bakura's repeated phrase be the key to undoing Zurui's evil influence.  
  
Taerro shook his head hard, trying to block out Zurui from his mind. I never could win against the Vampire Lord, he admitted to himself, using all of his will power to overcome the influence. But that doesn't mean I can't win now...  
  
Taerro blinked as his vision, once foggy and clouded now becoming clear.  
  
"Bakura...?" he asked, looking around at the giant Archfiend chessboard in front of them. "What's going on?"  
  
Bakura sighed, smiling.  
  
  
  
"We're just playing chess, Taerro," he said simply, grinning.  
  
************  
  
Seto walked through the darkness, the Millennium Rod providing light all around him. For some reason, he felt as though he were being followed by something, but every time he looked around, the movement stopped, and he was alone again.  
  
"It's almost as if I can vaguely hear voices in my mind," Seto murmured, narrowing his eyes. "But I can't make out what they're saying."  
  
Narrowing his eyes, he looked down at the Millennium Rod, which was still growing brightly as he walked along in the darkness.  
  
"Perhaps that's part of the "darkness..." Seto murmured, feeling something strange in his heart, as if someone were calling to him.  
  
************  
  
Mokuba put his hand on his deck, slowly drawing up his card. Please, he thought to himself, squeezing his eyes shut. Niisama, I need your help. And I know what card can help me...  
  
Mokuba opened one eye to see the glittering foil card in his hands. He grinned broadly, adding it to his hand and looking out at Pearl's field.  
  
"All right!" Mokuba declared, putting Soul Exchange into one of the magic and trap slots. "I activate Soul Exchange!"  
  
Pearl blinked as her Maiden of Aqua and Fire Princess disappeared, a blue light appearing on Mokuba's side of the field as he set the card he'd just drawn on his duel disk.  
  
"Come out! Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Mokuba declared, the mighty dragon appearing on his side of the field, it wings flapping as it let out a mighty roar.  
  
Mokuba smiled.  
  
"Thanks, niisama," he murmured to himself, realizing that the Blue Eyes White Dragon card had indeed protected him. "Now! Since your field is empty, I order the Blue Eyes White Dragon to attack your life points directly!"  
  
Pearl gasped as the dragon unleashed a furious attack of White Lightning, giving Pearl direct damage.  
  
  
  
"Gr..." Pearl muttered, gritting her teeth as the dust cleared and her life points fell to 1000.  
  
Mokuba smirked, feeling proud, and relieved.  
  
"Your move, Pearl," he declared, narrowing his eyes at her.  
  
Pearl narrowed her eyes, anger surging through her. She despised losing, to anyone, no matter what the circumstances.  
  
"I will not lose to you," she snapped, drawing her card. "I play a card facedown, and then I play Monster Reborn, reviving my Maiden of Aqua."  
  
The blue-haired maiden reappeared on her field as Pearl narrowed her blank brown eyes at Mokuba. Mokuba smiled, realizing that maybe all this anger, which was definitely a trademark of Pearl herself, might bring back the real Pearl and get rid of whoever was in her head making her fight with him.  
  
"Then I play the Rod of Silence, Kay'est on her, raising her defense to 2500!" Pearl declared, brushing a strand of her white hair out of her face. "Then, I summon my monster Guardian Kay'est in defense mode!"  
  
A strange mermaid-like monster appeared on Pearl's field, Mokuba raising an eyebrow at it.  
  
"What's that monster do?" he asked, confused as to why it had the same name as the magic card she'd just played on the Maiden of Aqua.  
  
Pearl smirked.  
  
"It..." she started, pausing, finding herself trying to find the right words to say. "It can only be summoned when the Rod of Silence is in the field, and you can't attack her and she's not affected by magic cards of any kind."  
  
Mokuba blinked, noticing Pearl had slipped up on a few words. Could it be...  
  
"And I end my turn with that!" she declared, glaring at Mokuba with her blank, brown eyes. "Hurry up and move, Mokuba Kaiba."  
  
************  
  
Yami clenched his fists, unable to believe what had just occurred. Aibou...my partner, had surrendered. For me! But why? I'm supposed to be the one protecting HIM. Fine job I did, Yami thought to himself, squeezing his eyes shut.  
  
"Yugi!" he cried, his Millennium Puzzle lighting up brightly and his surroundings beginning to face away.  
  
Yami opened his eyes to find himself facing the dark slit that Seto had made in the dungeon wall. Blinking, he looked down at the puzzle, whose glow was slowly dying down.  
  
  
  
"Is this..." Yami murmured, peering at the slit. "The darkness...?"  
  
*************  
  
Yugi groaned, opening his eyes to find himself in a world that was all dark, his Millennium Puzzle providing the only light in the area, which wasn't very much. Blinking, he stood up, looking around.  
  
"I must be...in the "darkness," he murmured, gulping, feeling nervous.  
  
He didn't even have Yami with him now, or even the mental link so he could talk to him. He was all alone...  
  
Yugi walked forward, feeling as though things were twittering around, watching him, talking to themselves all around him. It was an odd feeling that sent shivers down the boy's spine.  
  
However, even though Yugi couldn't tell what it was reacting to, the Millennium Puzzle continued to glow as he walked along. Smiling half-heartedly, Yugi looked down at the puzzle, the light making him feel more protected and not so along, somehow.  
  
  
  
"Hello?" Yugi called, wondering why he still felt as though people were talking to him through the darkness. "Is anyone out there?"  
  
*************  
  
As Seto walked along through the darkness swirling all around him, he suddenly spotted Priest Seto, lying stilly on the dark floor, his eyes closed. Seto's eyes widened and he hurried over to the spot, feeling nervous, the Millennium Rod still in his hands.  
  
"Priest?" he asked, his eyes narrowed as he knelt down beside him, studying his motionless body.  
  
Seto placed a hand over the priest's chest, and was relieved to find a heartbeat. Gently, he shook Priest Seto's shoulder, wondering what the "darkness" exactly had done too him. He looked as though he'd been attacked by something, and hadn't exactly come off with the best of it.  
  
  
  
"Priest!" Seto called, wishing he'd wake up.  
  
Seto glanced around edgily, feeling as though someone, or something, were watching him, but all he saw was dark colors swirling together in the distance, the only light coming from his Millennium Rod, which was still lit up brightly for some odd reason.  
  
Priest Seto moaned, his eyes opening halfway as he stared blankly upward at Seto, his vision blurred. Seto looked down, trying not to let his concern show.  
  
  
  
"Are you all right?" Seto asked, Priest Seto blinking slowly, Seto's dark form above him still blurry and unclear.  
  
"S...Seto Kaiba...?" Priest Seto muttered, trying to focus. "How...are you here...?"  
  
Seto glanced around again, trying to formulate a plan in his mind.  
  
"What happened to you?" he asked seriously, looking back down at the priest.  
  
"I...the...enemy...in my heart..." Priest Seto mumbled, closing his eyes again.  
  
Seto gritted his teeth.  
  
"All right, all right," he replied hastily, not wanting the priest to hurt himself further by trying to explain something that was fairly irrelevant to the situation at the moment. "Save your energy."  
  
Well, at least I've found him, Seto thought to himself, looking around again. Now to get out of here again...  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter Ten  
  
^_^ REVIEW!  
  
"And next chapter up soon!" 


	11. Chapter Eleven: In the Darkness

Chapter Eleven: In the Darkness  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for reviewing. And I know that Toon World doesn't automatically make your monsters toons, but for the sake of the chapter, I'm mixing and matching Duelist Kingdom and Battle City Toon World rules, ok? XD  
  
"And here we go with Chapter E-le-ven!"  
  
***********  
  
Chapter Eleven: In the Darkness  
  
Zurui tapped her fingers on her orb, the blue fog inside resting on the bottom. For some reason, although she knew not what the reason was, there were four people in the "darkness" and yet none of them were experiencing the horrors of it as the priest had.  
  
The priest was unconscious, so that made sense, but why did the CEO, the nameless Pharaoh, and the young boy not feel the effects of the darkness around them?  
  
Zurui narrowed her eyes, looking closely at the three of them. Raising an eyebrow, the glint of the Millennium Items possessed by each (both Yugi's having a puzzle) catching her eyes.  
  
"The Millennium Items," she murmured, narrowing her eyes as she watching Yami looking around frantically for Yugi and Seto trying to help his ancient self up. "They must somehow block out the darkness and its effects by their glow."  
  
Angrily, Zurui clenched her fists and turned the screen back to Yami Bakura, who was gleefully walking down one of the dungeon paths, blasting a hole in the wall, and walking through it into the next room. She gritted her teeth, all of her plans suddenly going awry.  
  
"This is NOT how things were supposed to have gone," she growled to herself, watching the games underway.  
  
Bakura and Taerro both seemed to be enjoying themselves for some reason, nearly all of their pieces gone.  
  
"They're playing for a draw," Zurui growled, turning the screen to Joey and Mai's sword battle. "And she's broken through the mental barrier and they're both escaping!"  
  
Pounding her fists down on the arm of her chair, Tea's screen came up, where the brown-haired girl was sitting quietly in another white room, waiting for Yami Bakura to rescue her, although he had no intention of doing so.  
  
"My plans are ruined!" she snapped aloud, rubbing the orb with her fingers, another scheme forming in her mind. "If my players get too smart, then I must change the rules, to my advantage."  
  
Angrily, she flashed her screen to the dungeons, where the dark slit that Seto had created was still flapping open, revealing an entrance, or exit, to the darkness. Pursing her lips, Zurui rubbed her orb and a blue smoke engulfed the slit, sealing it back and locking everyone in the darkness inside.  
  
"There's four, and now the rest," she murmured, looking back at the other games that were in progress.  
  
*************  
  
"Yami?" Yugi called, looking around through the darkness, shivering. "Hello? Anyone?!"  
  
Yugi gulped as the Millennium Puzzle's light grew brighter, obviously reacting to something nearby. Yugi's eyes lit up and he looked around frantically, hoping that someone he knew and trusted would be there, although it was a doubtful hope.  
  
"Yugi?"  
  
Yugi's ears perked up. Was someone really calling his name? He thought to himself, running forward toward the sound of the voice.  
  
"Yugi? Where are you?"  
  
  
  
"Yami!" Yugi cried, spotting his partner up ahead, his Millennium Puzzle glowing brightly around his neck as well. "Yami!"  
  
Yami spotted Yugi running toward him and smiled with relief.  
  
"Thank goodness," he muttered as Yugi ran up to him, his eyes big and relieved. "Yugi! Why did you surrender like that? You had me worried about you!" he scolded.  
  
Yugi blushed, scratching his cheek.  
  
"Well, you're always there helping me out," he explained, his cheeks slightly pink. "So I figured it was my turn to help you out. And you did throw off Zurui's influence, obviously."  
  
Yami nodded quickly, glancing around edgily.  
  
"I keep feeling like we're being followed, or stalked," Yami murmured, pulling Yugi toward him, not wanting anything to end up reaching out and grabbing him after he'd just found the boy.  
  
Yugi nodded, looking down at his glowing puzzle.  
  
"I know what you mean, Yami," Yugi replied, biting his lip as he glanced around. "It's like I almost hear people talking to me, but then when I look around, nothing's there."  
  
Yami nodded, wondering what could be going on.  
  
"Do you think it has something to do with our Millennium Puzzle...s?" Yugi asked, looking up at Yami with his large eyes. "I mean, mine hasn't stopped glowing since I got here, and yours is too," he added, pointing down at Yami's Millennium Puzzle.  
  
Yami nodded slowly, thinking to himself as he looked around again.  
  
"It could be..." he murmured, gesturing in the direction he'd come from and starting to walk forward. "Come on, let's get out of here and see if we can't help the others."  
  
Yugi nodded determinedly, running after Yami.  
  
"Okay!" he called in reply.  
  
************  
  
Mokuba bit his lip, looking from Guardian Kay'est to Maiden of Aqua, and back to his, or rather Seto's, Blue Eyes White Dragon.  
  
"Even if I destroy the Maiden of Aqua, I can never attack the Guardian Kay'est," Mokuba scowled, picking his next card, feeling uneasy. "And since there's hardly any magic or trap cards in my deck, it'll be nearly impossible to get rid of that monster!"  
  
Mokuba blinked as he looked at the card he'd just picked reading the title carefully.  
  
"Toon World?" he asked, blinking at it. "Why would I have put this kind of card in there?" he muttered to himself, reading the effect. "All I can do with it is pay 1000 life points."  
  
Irritated, he put the card in his hand, ignoring it and playing a monster in defense mode. Then, his eyes wandered over to the Blue Eyes White Dragon that was in front of him, poised for attack.  
  
"But..." Mokuba murmured, picking up the Toon World card again. "It can make monsters on your field become toon monsters!" he gasped, looking at his dragon. "I can make the Blue Eyes White Dragon into a toon, and then he can attack directly past Guardian Kay'est and at Pearl's life points!"  
  
Pearl put her hands on her hips, angry that Mokuba was taking so long, subconsciously breaking free of the evil influence that was forcing her to duel the black-haired boy.  
  
"Just make your move!" she yelled impatiently, narrowing her brown eyes, which were retaining some of their original spunk.  
  
Mokuba glared up at her, not wanting to really defeat Pearl, but he knew that he couldn't allow himself to lose either. But wasn't the inevitable conclusion to the duel either victory or defeat?  
  
"Okay, fine," Mokuba declared, putting the Toon World card on his duel disk. "I pay 1000 life points to activate Toon World!"  
  
Pearl's eyes widened as the cartoon-book appeared on the field and the Blue Eyes White Dragon was sucked into it.  
  
"Toon World?!" she cried, shocked. "But...that card allows you to make your monsters into toon monsters!"  
  
Mokuba grinned and nodded as the once proud and mighty-looking Blue Eyes White Dragon reappeared from the book, looking more like a metallic Baby Dragon than a Blue Eyes White Toon Dragon.  
  
"Blue Eyes Toon Dragon!" Mokuba declared, hoping that Seto wouldn't mind too much that he'd turned his elegant monster into a cartoon-character. "He can't attack this turn, but next turn, with the cost of 500 life points, he can attack YOU directly!"  
  
Pearl gulped, feeling nervous as she watched the Toon Blue Eyes bop up and down excitedly, grinning mischievously.  
  
"O...okay," she muttered, looking down at her hand nervously. "Is that your whole turn?"  
  
Mokuba nodded boldly, the toon dragon looking quite pleased with itself for no apparent reason.  
  
"Yep! Your move, Pearl!" he declared, swallowing.  
  
*************  
  
Seto sighed, stopping and slumping to the ground, lost in the darkness and unable to find the slit in which he'd entered the place from. Priest Seto hadn't awakened yet, not that it was better or worse this way.  
  
Panting, Seto closed his eyes, trying to figure out what to do next. It wasn't like the Millennium Rod was creating a way for him to get out again, and Seto couldn't decide whether or not he should wait around for an idea, or keep moving.  
  
The vague and muffled voices continued to sound in the backgrounds of the swirling darkness, making the hairs on Seto's neck prickle, though Seto quickly shook his head, determined not to let the noises get to him.  
  
"It's nothing but an illusion," he muttered, remembering briefly what Priest Seto had said about the "enemy in his heart." "Just another stupid trick designed to play upon one's weaknesses."  
  
Priest Seto's eyes fluttered open, and blearily he looked up at Seto, who was looking around now, trying to decide on which direction to go next. The priest winced, weakened from the attack of the enemy in his heart. He'd been knocked out during one of the attacks, but now...they had died down.  
  
"There's gotta be some way out of here..." Seto muttered to himself, the rod still glowing as he grasped its handle tightly.  
  
Priest Seto blinked, trying to raise himself up off the ground, but finding it impossible. Instead, he closed his eyes again, thoughts running through his mind.  
  
"Why did you...come to find me...?" Priest Seto asked, taking shallow breaths.  
  
Seto looked down, thinking to himself.  
  
"You've saved my life more times than once," Seto replied vaguely, looking out into the distance. "I had to repay the deed."  
  
Priest Seto sighed, wondering to himself.  
  
"Really," he murmured. "Well, I thank you...but you shouldn't have put yourself at risk. After all...it is my duty to protect you...not the other way around..."  
  
Seto sighed, closing his eyes and folding his arms across his chest.  
  
"Besides," he continued, almost to himself, knowing he may as well admit it, seeing as how the priest was his ancient self. "You're not just some spirit that hangs around Mokuba and I all the time. You've helped us out...and been there for us."  
  
Priest Seto tilted his head to the side, his vision becoming a tad clearer as he listened to the usually icy Seto Kaiba say something he'd never heard the boy say before.  
  
"You should probably understand, there haven't been a lot of people Mokuba and I could trust since our parents died," Seto continued, vaguely wondering why he was actually admitting all this to the priest. "But you're different. You're actually someone I could call a...a friend, and...I...I didn't want you to leave."  
  
Priest Seto was shocked, but felt a feeling of happiness. So Seto Kaiba actually did consider him to be a friend. Quite an achievement, considering how we started off, Priest Seto thought to himself as he winced again.  
  
"So you'd better not go dying on me," Seto finished, narrowing his eyes as he looked around, feeling this time as though there were people really there, not just the muffled voices all around like he'd previously heard.  
  
"Why..." Priest Seto, a moment later, asked, half-closing his eyes. "Why are you not affected by the darkness in the same way I was?"  
  
Seto shrugged, as unsure about it as the priest was.  
  
"I don't know," he muttered, pulling the rod out in front of him to light the path, checking to make sure there was no one there.  
  
Then it clicked.  
  
"The rod!" Priest Seto said, his eyes wide as he stared at the glowing golden rod. "The...Millennium Items must somehow protect their owners from the effects in this dark world. That is why you were not...bombarded with your enemy in your heart...or whatever it was..."  
  
The priest trailed off as Seto sighed, hoping with all his heart that Mokuba was not in this dark world as well, unprotected and possibly injured. Seto looked down at Priest Seto, wondering.  
  
"Can you sense Mokuba's spirit here at all?" he inquired, the priest closing his eyes for a moment.  
  
"No..." he murmured at last, opening them again, raising himself up shakily. "I can sense...Yugi and the Pharaoh...however," he replied nodding behind Seto.  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter 11  
  
^_^ Okay, review please, and I'll try to have Chapter 12 up tomorrow, or Tuesday.  
  
"Yep! Things are heating up for a big battle! ^_^!!"  
  
Priest Seto: X_X; At least I'm...alive. If you could call a spirit alive...I guess...  
  
^^; *pats Priest Seto* 


	12. Chapter Twelve: Trial and Error

Chapter Twelve: Trial and Error  
  
Notes: ^_^ Here we go with Chapter 12! Thanks for reviewing the last chapter, and yeah, I know the title of this one is the name of a card in the game, but I like it.  
  
Red: ^^ Plus, it suits the chapter.  
  
************  
  
Chapter Twelve: Trial and Error  
  
"Yami, it's Kaiba and the priest!" Yugi called to his spirit-friend as he hurried ahead, his puzzle lighting the way as he approached Seto and the wounded Priest Seto. "Hey guys!" he yelled, waving his hand so they could see him.  
  
"I was right," Priest Seto muttered, trying to pull himself back to his feet.  
  
Who knew what would attack them next in this mixed-up darkness? It was better to be ready than be surprised by an assault.  
  
"Yugi," Seto acknowledged the boy, nodding as he lowered the rod to his side. "Why are you here?"  
  
Yugi sighed, catching his breath as Yami walked up behind him, looking from Seto to Priest Seto curiously.  
  
"Well, Yami and I had to duel each other, and I surrendered so I ended up down here," Yugi explained, looking over at Yami. "By the way, how did you get in here, Yami?"  
  
Yami narrowed his eyes, thinking back to how the puzzle had reacting to his emotions and brought him to the slit that enabled him to enter the darkness in the first place.  
  
"I used a large slit in the wall of the dungeons which acted as a link from the other dimension to this "darkness," he explained, looking over at Seto and Priest Seto once more. "How did you two get here, and what happened to you?" he added, noticing the priest's roughed appearance.  
  
"The priest surrendered in the duel..." Seto began, not exactly knowing how to explain that he'd created the slit that allowed them to enter the world, which was most likely the one Yami had used as well. "And I used that same slit entrance to get into the world to find him."  
  
Priest Seto raised an eyebrow, all of this information new to him, as he finally got to his feet, his knees shaking slightly, but he ignored it and nodded.  
  
"The darkness seems to torture one inside with the "enemy" in their heart," Priest Seto explained, sighing. "The exception seems to be those with Millennium Items, who are unaffected, as I'm assuming you two were."  
  
Yami nodded.  
  
"True, we didn't experience anything like that," he replied, the area around them suddenly shaking, as if a powerful explosion had just gone off somewhere inside.  
  
"Wha...what's that?!" Yugi cried, his eyes growing wide as he looked around, the muffled voices dying away and everything becoming deathly silent.  
  
"I...don't know..." Yami replied, narrowing his eyes as he looked around skeptically.  
  
"But whatever it is, it's probably not good," Seto reminded them, staying alert.  
  
************  
  
Yami Bakura stepped up the stone stairs that he'd discovered during his blasting-spree. Everything that had at one point been in his path was now completely demolished, and the tomb robber was now gleefully walking up to the top of the tower, he assumed, where he hoped to find Zurui.  
  
"Once I've located the one behind all this and take his powers, I will be able to return to the real world and once again attempt to gain all the Millennium Items," Yami Bakura murmured, narrowing his brown eyes as he continued on his way. "I guess I have to thank the owner of this dimension; they freed me from my prison in the Millennium Ring."  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Zurui stood up, her orb still filling slowly with the blue fog, the affects of the darkness now taking no affect on her prisoners within.  
  
"Foolish mortals," she muttered, picking up a necklace that was colored the same as her orb, blue fog swirling around inside of its crystal containment as well. "They will perish once they face darkness itself, and I will have to destroy the rogue one single-handedly, seeing as how my soldiers could not do the job themselves."  
  
Her black shoes clackd on the stone floors as she walked over to a stone staircase and started down, her eyes narrowed in determination.  
  
"Soon, all of their powers will become mine, and my power levels will reach their maximum strength, enabling me to become master of not only this dimension, but the real one as well!"  
  
*************  
  
Pearl blinked, shaking her head as the two wills in her mind battled against each other, the Pearl inside trying desperately to break free of the dark influences that were urging her to continue her duel with Mokuba.  
  
"I don't want to duel him!" she yelled at the dark images that were in her crowded mind, but they paid no attention and instead wrapped around her mind, forcing her to continue.  
  
The only part of her that could break free was her determination to win and succeed, but that only made her more lethal and more willing to defeat Mokuba in the duel, despite her true wishes.  
  
"Moku...ba..." Pearl managed to choke out, staring at him with her conflicted brown eyes as she strained against the darkness.  
  
Mokuba's eyes widened.  
  
"Pearl?!" he cried, wondering if the real Pearl had broken free of the evil influences inside of her.  
  
Pearl managed to nod, looking down at her hand.  
  
"Look...you must...work for the..." she stammered, the darkness squeezing her inside, forcing her to stop talking. "The...draw! The toon can draw that game...!"  
  
With that, Pearl sighed, giving in once more and letting the darkness continue to influence her.  
  
"I play Toon Mermaid in attack mode!" Pearl declared, narrowing her eyes as the toon monster she'd inherited from Amber when she'd decided to remove the Toon World monsters from her deck appearing in front of her, holding a pink and white bow and arrow. "I set one card face down and end my turn with that."  
  
Mokuba blinked, wondering how the toons could create a draw game. Obviously he wasn't going to attack again this turn because Pearl would lose, but he still had 2500 life points. That was too much for him to get down to Pearl's 1000 soon.  
  
"Wait!" Mokuba thought to himself, reading the Toon Dragon's effect over again. "I have to pay 500 life points to attack, so if I pay ALL of my life points to attack Pearl and wipe out ALL of her life points, it's a draw!"  
  
"Your move, Mokuba," Pearl declared coldly, narrowing her eyes as Mokuba shivered in the cold again.  
  
"I play a monster in defense mode and a card facedown too, and I end my turn!" Mokuba called over to her, Pearl drawing a card. "Activate Trap Card! Interdimensional Matter Transporter!"  
  
Pearl blinked, watching at the Blue Eyes Toon Dragon disappeared from Mokuba's side of the field.  
  
"This trap card allows me to take one of my monsters and remove them from play until the end of the turn. In other words, I've taken my Blue Eyes Toon Dragon out of play until the end of YOUR turn, Pearl," Mokuba explained, grinning.  
  
Pearl smiled smugly.  
  
"I activate my facedown card, Ookazi, which gives you 800 points of direct damage!" Pearl called, a huge fireball smashing down on Mokuba, causing him to lose his balance and wobble as he life points fell to 1800. "Then I pay 500 of my life points to enable Toon Mermaid to attack YOU directly!"  
  
The Toon Mermaid pulled back on her bow and sent the arrow flying toward Mokuba, where it hit his duel disk life point counter, his own life points falling to 400.  
  
"Uh..." Mokuba muttered, narrowing his eyes as the Blue Eyes Toon Dragon returned to the field. "Thanks, Pearl," he murmured, smiling slightly.  
  
***********  
  
Bakura blinked as he and Taerro walked through the black portal and back into the white dining room, Mai and Joey sitting down at the table and watching the portals anxiously. Tristan and Serenity were also there, both of whom looked rather content, but worried.  
  
"You managed to find Joey and Tristan?" Bakura asked the two girls, looking relieved as he slumped down in his own chair, Taerro taking the seat next to him.  
  
Mai nodded wearily.  
  
"Yeeep," she replied with a sigh, looking over at Joey who still didn't look as though he could believe he had really been sword-fighting with MAI of all people. "And we had to sword-duel our way back."  
  
Joey grinned nervously, glancing over at Mai.  
  
"Um...sorry about cutting you back there," he apologized, biting his lip as he noticed the gash on Mai's shoulder.  
  
Mai narrowed her eyes.  
  
"Next time listen to me sooner then," she said haughtily, looking over at the others.  
  
Serenity smiled at Joey.  
  
"I'm just glad you're both okay, oniichan," she said with a sigh, looking nervously back over at the portals. "Where are the others, though? They've been gone an awfully long time."  
  
Bakura sighed, looking down at the white table. Long wasn't exactly a good thing in such a situation. The only thing he could think of was that his friends had also been forced to fight each other, and one of them had sadly lost, and the other...too forlorn to return right away.  
  
"We had to play a game of chess, but fortunately Bakura managed to throw off the dark influences and we played to a draw," Taerro explained, looking at the others. "But if that hadn't happened...one of us would have ended up in the "darkness"...whatever that is."  
  
Serenity's brown eyes got wide.  
  
"Do you think...one of the others got sent to the darkness?" she asked, her voice quivering.  
  
Bakura swallowed.  
  
"That might have happened," he admitted. "But let's hope not."  
  
Taerro nodded agreement.  
  
*************  
  
End of Chapter 12  
  
^_^ REVIEW!  
  
"And next chapter up soon!" 


	13. Chapter Thirteen: United Resistance

Chapter Thirteen: United Resistance  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for reviewing! And no, my next story isn't going to take place after the Memories Arc. ^_~ During the course of the series, Yami will probably end up getting his memory back in a different way.  
  
"But how and when, remains to be seen. --; Anyway! Here's chapter 13!"  
  
************  
  
Chapter Thirteen: United Resistance  
  
The darkness all around Yugi, Yami, Seto, and Priest Seto swirled as the four stared in surprise.  
  
"What...what's going on?" Yugi cried, looking around wildly as a loud rumble started to fill the room.  
  
Yami narrowed his purple eyes in thought, trying to make out a figure in the darkness all around them.  
  
"Dark Magician!" Yami declared, his faithful monster, clad in a purple wizard's attire appearing in front of him, his green staff in front of him, prepared for attack.  
  
"Kuri, kuri!"  
  
Everyone turned to see that Yami's brown-furred Ka had appeared as well, bobbing up and down, eagerly anticipating orders from its master.  
  
  
  
"Kuribo?" Yami asked, looking a little shocked by its sudden appearance.  
  
Only have just found out about his Ka a few months ago, he still wasn't used to the furry monster appearing out of thin air every now and again, but now, they could probably use all the help they could get.  
  
"All right," Yami said with a nod. "You can help."  
  
Kuribo looked flattered as Yugi's Millennium Puzzle glinted, a monster appearing in front of him as well.  
  
"Celtic Guardian!" he declared, using some of his spiritual power to summon the monster, his silver sword in front of him as he poised for battle.  
  
Seto nodded at Priest Seto and the Millennium Rod lit up brightly as the White Dragon appeared beside Priest Seto and another Blue Eyes White Dragon appeared behind Seto, roaring as it spread its graceful wings out sending ruffles of wind down at its master and the others.  
  
"Nothing can stand a chance against all these monsters," Seto declared, narrowing his cold blue eyes and looking around skeptically, searching for their enemy who was lurking in the darkness.  
  
"Whatever attacked me before came out of nowhere," Priest Seto reminded his reincarnate seriously, also glancing around as the White Dragon prepared to attack on order from the priest. "It seems that the darkness itself had attacked me. We had no chance of defending ourselves."  
  
Yami gritted his teeth.  
  
"Well, that won't happen again!" he declared boldly, his puzzle glowing more brightly than ever. "Zurui! Send your toughest monsters at us and we will still emerge victorious! You won't win over us!"  
  
Yugi nodded, his eyes narrowed in determination.  
  
"That's right!" he declared, just as the ground shook wildly and there was a huge booming sound, as if some horribly huge beast as put down its foot in the darkness in front of them...  
  
************  
  
Bakura gasped and stood up suddenly as Amber and Duke staggered through their portal, looking weary. Amber sighed, looking around at the others nervously.  
  
"You guys have the same problem we did?" she inquired, collapsing in a white chair next to Duke, who also sat down.  
  
Taerro looked over at the others and then back at Amber and Duke.  
  
"If you mean fighting against a brainwashed friend, then yes, we did," he replied, no trace of humor in his voice at all.  
  
Bakura nodded as Amber sighed.  
  
"Yeah, that's what I meant," she replied, glad she'd been able to convince Duke not to fight against her.  
  
The two had narrowly escaped as an army of odd metal soldiers had immediately begun pursuing them as they tried to get back to the portal and back to the others. Duke scanned the room, counting the people.  
  
"Hey, we're missing Yugi, Kaiba, and Tea!" he cried, realizing the three weren't there.  
  
Bakura nodded nervously, glancing edgily over at the portals once again.  
  
"Yes, and Mokuba, Pearl, and the two spirits as well," he murmured, looking down at his ring again, nervously. "We may also be missing a third spirit, now that I think about it..." he murmured, only Taerro really hearing his friend.  
  
Taerro's eyes widened behind his gold-rimmed glasses as he looked over at his white-haired friend.  
  
"You mean...you think HE'S here too?" Taerro whispered to Bakura as Tristan paced restlessly back and forth and Joey fiddled with a plate on the table, unsure of what to do.  
  
Bakura didn't reply, but only stared down at the Eye of Horus on his Millennium Ring, feeling a lump grow in his throat. If Yami Bakura WERE there, they were in for more trouble than they had expected...  
  
*************  
  
Mokuba smiled as he drew his card, knowing that the final move was at hand. The Blue Eyes Toon Dragon glanced over at Mokuba, and Mokuba winked.  
  
"You know what to do, Blue Eyes," he told the dragon with a grin. "I pay 500 of my life points to allow the Toon Dragon to destroy your Toon Mermaid, which wipes out BOTH of our life points!"  
  
The Blue Eyes Toon Dragon sucked up a bunch of air from its surrounding environment and then blasted a purple electric beam at the Toon Mermaid, frying her to a crisp as Mokuba and Pearl's scores both dropped to zero at the same time.  
  
The monsters in front of them vanished, as since there had been no loser and no winner, the cloud of dark smoke did not come to envelope them as did Yugi and Priest Seto.  
  
"Pearl?" Mokuba cried, running over to the white-haired girl as she fell to her knees, exhausted from fighting against the darkness in her mind.  
  
The ground around her frozen up with a path of thick ice, the pearl reading the girl's emotions again as Mokuba stumbled over. Pearl blinked, looking up at Mokuba with her big brown eyes which, luckily, were no longer blank and unseeing.  
  
"Are you okay?" Mokuba asked worriedly, his big gray eyes looking down at her as he helped her to her feet.  
  
Pearl smiled rather embarrassedly, her cheeks turning slightly pink as she avoided Mokuba's gaze.  
  
"You save me again," she muttered, looking out into the distance of the icy land.  
  
Mokuba grinned proudly, rubbing his neck modestly.  
  
"No problem," he replied, smiling.  
  
Pearl glanced over at him with a chuckle.  
  
"You think about that earring and a new hairdo," she said simply, walking forward toward the black portal that was looming in the distance ahead of them.  
  
Mokuba couldn't believe his ears at first, but then sighed, still smiling as he followed after the proud girl.  
  
"If she had said anything else, she wouldn't be Pearl," he muttered to himself, shaking his head with a laugh. "Oh well."  
  
His gaze went down to his deck, where on top, the Blue Eyes White Dragon card grinned up at him. Mokuba smiled, hoping that his brother was all right, seeing as how his card had pulled him through that battle.  
  
"Thanks, niisama," he whispered before running to catch up with Pearl, who was already halfway through the black portal that lead back to the white room where they had started their journey.  
  
************  
  
Yami Bakura stepped up the last stair and looked around at the wide and empty room that he'd just entered. The floors were all made of gray stone, just as had the stairs and the dungeon paths, but something about this room made the Millennium Ring light up with a blinding light, as if the room itself were powerful. Or, it was reacting to something that was IN the room...or near it, at least.  
  
"You can come out of hiding already," Yami Bakura declared, narrowing his brown eyes skeptically as he scanned the room.  
  
The soft chuckle of Zurui's filled the room and Yami Bakura raised an eyebrow as the dark-haired woman stepped into the room from the other side, the room they were in being the divider between the two staircases.  
  
"You must be the stowaway child," Zurui murmured, studying Yami Bakura closely. "You don't care about your poor friend who is trapped, awaiting her rescuer?"  
  
Yami Bakura burst out laughing in a high-pitched manner that would have sent chills down anyone else's spine, but Zurui didn't looked phased as Yami Bakura quieted down and narrowed his eyes in anger at Zurui.  
  
"I am no mere child, woman," he snapped indignantly, looking rather annoyed. "I am an ancient tomb robber, and I could care less about that pathetic mortal friend of Yugi's."  
  
Zurui raised an eyebrow.  
  
"So you are the spirit of the Millennium Ring," she mused, her eyes going down to examine the Millennium Ring. "You DO look remarkably like the young boy who was playing chess against his friend. I suppose you take after his appearances."  
  
Yami Bakura huffed, folding his arms over his chest.  
  
"I take after my OWN appearances," he snapped, his temper rising. "My reincarnated self is a fool and a weak mortal. His body is his only use to me, I'll have you know. But right now, since I have my own body it seems, all I want is to defeat YOU and claim your powers."  
  
Zurui chuckled, looking down at the necklace she was clutching in her hand, the blue fog swirling around inside of it just as her orb had been doing back in her watch-room upstairs.  
  
"My powers haven't increased as much as I'd planned," she thought to herself, grinning slyly up at Yami Bakura. "But after I claim the Millennium Ring, its powers will be more than enough to raise my powers to their next level."  
  
"If you've come for a battle, I won't deny you the privilege," she hissed, her dark eyes flashing as she put her arms out in a battle position, her necklace dangling from her left hand as she clutched it tightly. "But I must warn you, anyone who faces me does not leave with their life, or their powers."  
  
Yami Bakura grinned, his ring lighting up again brightly.  
  
"Then I think I'm going to enjoy this fight," he replied gleefully.  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Yugi, Yami, Seto, and Priest Seto stepped backward nervously as a huge and shadowy beast emerged, the light from the Millennium Items and the Duel Monsters providing enough light to glimpse the horrible beast.  
  
"It's...it's not a Duel Monster!" Yugi cried, his Celtic Guardian narrowing its eyes, crouching low as he prepared to attack.  
  
Yami's eyes widened, completely surprised by the huge monster, its yellowed fangs hanging out of its mouth, its red eyes giving it a demonic appearance as it flexed its clawed hands.  
  
"It's a monster of some sort," Seto replied, narrowing his eyes as the Blue Eyes held its ground next to the White Dragon.  
  
The Dark Magician, too, hadn't retreated, and was preparing to assault the beast on Yami's orders. Kuribo hovered near Yugi's shoulder, watching the huge beast with watery eyes.  
  
"Kuriii..." It murmured, nervously shaking.  
  
Priest Seto swallowed, thoughts racing through his mind as he held his ground as well, trying to ignore the wounds he'd gotten from the darkness's attack on him earlier.  
  
"We've got to defeat this monster," he muttered to the others, who nodded. "That's the only way out of here, apparently."  
  
  
  
"This must be the final test Zurui has plotted for us," Yami observed sensing the monster's high energy. "It must have taken much energy to summon a beast of this strength, and I doubt she could do that twice in a row."  
  
Seto nodded, holding the glowing Millennium Rod out in front of him.  
  
"All together?" Yugi asked, looking up at Yami, who nodded, not tearing his eyes away from the monster in front of him.  
  
"Ah," he replied determinedly.  
  
"Blue Eyes! White Lightning!" Seto declared, his dragon flying upward and blasting an electrical attack down at the huge and daunting monster.  
  
"White Dragon! Summon your strength and use Burst Stream!" Priest Seto ordered, his tired dragon refusing to back down and blasted an attack directly at the huge monster as well.  
  
"Dark Magic Attack!" Yami called, the Dark Magician waving his green staff around and purple and black energy flew from the top, swirling and mixing in with the two dragon's attacks.  
  
The huge beast cried out in agony as the combined attack hit him head on, causing him to teeter as he nearly fell over from the impact. He glared up at his attacks as the Celtic Guardian rushed forward as the smoke from the larger attacks cleared an he slashed at the monster yet again, and taken by surprise, the huge beast could do nothing to defend himself.  
  
"Aooorrh!" The beast roared in pain, slashing at the warrior-monster, sending him flying backward into the White Dragon.  
  
Yami gritted his teeth, seeing that one round of attacks wasn't enough.  
  
"We'd better attack again," Yami declared, looking at his Dark Magician, who was poised for another assault. "Before that monster unleashes HIS attacks on us all."  
  
*************  
  
End of Chapter 13  
  
^_^ REVIEW!  
  
"And next chapter up soon!" ^_^ 


	14. Chapter Fourteen: Despair from the Dark

Chapter Fourteen: Despair from the Dark  
  
Notes: ^-^ Thanks for reviewing!  
  
Priest Seto: O_O *biting his nails, anxiously awaiting the outcome of the fight*  
  
^-^ Chapter Fourteen!  
  
************  
  
Chapter Fourteen: Despair from the Dark  
  
"Farewell," Zurui muttered as she darted forward with lightning-fast speed, zooming toward Yami Bakura, who barely managed to scramble out of the way before she slammed into the wall, a blue explosion cracking bits of stone off and sending the white-haired thief slamming into the other side room.  
  
"Ack!" Yami Bakura gasped, falling down to the ground, his clothes covered in bits of broken stone as Zurui stepped, unharmed, away from the wall, a faint blue glow surrounding her body.  
  
Yami Bakura pulled himself to his feet, startled by Zurui's sudden attack. Zurui grinned at the tomb-robber, her black eyes glinting maliciously in the light.  
  
"What's wrong now, tomb-robber?" she asked in a sweet voice, marching forward, poised for another attack. "I thought you were going to beat me and take my powers!"  
  
Yami Bakura narrowed his eyes, annoyed as he ducked another attack from Zurui, her energy surrounding her in the blue glow, which appropriately matched the fog in her crystal necklace that she was still clutching in her hand.  
  
"I WILL defeat you," Yami Bakura snapped, using the ring to send a beam of energy toward Zurui, but the agile woman easily flipped out of the way, letting the blast destroy more of her stone walls.  
  
Zurui paused to examine the scortch-mark on the wall, shaking her head sadly.  
  
"You have SUCH poor aim," she murmured, shooting a fast-moving beam of blue energy toward him. "You're doing more damage to the room than you are to me, idiot."  
  
Yami Bakura clenched his fists, allowing a huge burst of energy to come forth from the ring, so quickly that even someone as adroit as Zurui couldn't dodge it. The woman's eyes widened as she was slammed into the wall by the black energy Yami Bakura's ring had emitted.  
  
************  
  
The black monster narrowed its red eyes at Yugi, Yami, Priest Seto, and Seto, setting its gaze on their four monsters (not including Kuribo, whom Yami was holding in his arms to prevent it from going to join the battle) and growling menacingly.  
  
"Attack again, Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Seto declared, gripping the rod's handle tightly as his dragon, swiftly followed by the White Dragon and Dark Magician, lunged forward to attack the beast again.  
  
The black monster roared, throwing its arms out and hitting the White Dragon and the Blue Eyes across the middle, causing them both to fly backwards and fall to the ground with a skid.  
  
"Blue Eyes!" Seto cried, his eyes widening as the Dark Magician used its staff to attack the monster, causing it to cry out in pain again.  
  
"We're getting through," Yami declared, Yugi's Celtic Guardian slashing its sword at the beast as well before it turned and slashed at the monster, causing him to wince and fall over, vanished.  
  
Yugi gasped, his eyes narrowing as he felt a portion of the attack, since the monster was his own. Concerned, Yami looked down at his partner, his eyes narrowed.  
  
"Don't summon another monster, Yugi," Yami advised as the two dragon's got back on their feet and flew forward to attack the monster again. "We can handle this with just the three of our monsters."  
  
Yugi narrowed his eyes sadly, looking down at his deck in his hands. Kuribo noticed Yugi's long face and floated over to look over his shoulder as the young boy skimmed through his deck.  
  
"Whatever you say, Yami," Yugi replied with a sigh as Seto's Blue Eyes launched an attack at the monster, but it easily dodged and countered by throwing the Blue Eyes away from it again where it slammed into the ground with a thud.  
  
*************  
  
Yami Bakura grinned as the smoke cleared from the attack he'd just dealt Zurui.  
  
"Ha, no mortal could survive that," he declared, walking forward triumphantly, ready to strip Zurui's dead body of the crystal pendant with the blue smoke inside and claim her powers as his own.  
  
Suddenly, Yami Bakura froze as the familiar chuckle of Zurui's filled the room, echoing all around him as though there were hundreds of Zuruis instead of just one, whom by now should be dead.  
  
"I...impossible!" Yami Bakura cried, his eyes widening as the black-clothed woman stepped out of the shadows, grinning even more maniacally than before, her crystal pendant's fog swirling around inside.  
  
"But then I keep trying to tell you, foolish tomb-robber..." Zurui purred, preparing to finish Yami Bakura off. "I am NOT a mere mortal...at ALL!"  
  
Yami Bakura narrowed his eyes as he backed up, thrown completely off-guard. Zurui sighed smiling fondly as she looked about her battle room, another victory just up ahead.  
  
  
  
"What are you?" Yami Bakura demanded in a hushed voice, Zurui raising an eyebrow, amused.  
  
"I would have thought you'd have figured it out by now," Zurui sighed, looking disappointed as she closed her eyes briefly. "But no matter. I am the apprentice of the ancient magician Arkana."  
  
Yami Bakura raised an eyebrow. Arkana? Had he not been a rogue magician during the time of the nameless Pharaoh's reign? He had acted against the Pharaoh's wishes and been banished, but the evil magician continued to try to destroy all of Egypt and claim the powers it possessed for himself.  
  
"He trained an apprentice?" Yami Bakura asked in disbelief, narrowing his eyes at Zurui. "Nonsense. Even if this were true, you would be dead by now, which you are not. You're just trying to play off myths and legends and think that idiots will believe you."  
  
Zurui smirked, folding her arms across her chest.  
  
"Believe what you want, tomb robber," she snapped icily, obviously put off by his remarks. "But remember what I said before about this dimension? The difference between body and spirit is so vague that it is barely distinguishable at all. I invoked the powers of the legendary Dimension Hole after my master was defeated and used the passageway to come to this dimension, where I have perfected my abilities and waited, biding my time for the perfect moment to strike and finish the work my master never could."  
  
Zurui smiled, calming herself a bit as she summoned a great deal of her energy with the intention of finishing off Yami Bakura for good.  
  
"My powers allow me to stay in the human dimension for various periods of time in a real body, but I cannot stay for unlimited times," she explained, grinning maliciously as she stepped forward, Yami Bakura gritting his teeth angrily as he tried to figure out what to do next.  
  
"Now, prepare to die and surrender to me the items that should have been Master Arkana's 3000 years ago!" she declared, grinning manically.  
  
************  
  
Yami narrowed his eyes as the White Dragon's attempt to attack the monster failed, landing harmless on the ground behind the monster as it leapt forward and attacked the weakened Blue Eyes on the ground.  
  
Seto gritted his teeth, not liking to see his loyal dragon being beaten by such a horrible monster.  
  
"Get up and fight, Blue Eyes!" Seto yelled, the Blue Eyes White Dragon flapping its mighty wings and causing the monster to fall backwards, allowing White Dragon and Dark Magician to attack it again.  
  
  
  
"It's getting weaker!" Priest Seto declared with a grin, watching as the monster slowly got back to is feet, trembling slightly.  
  
Seto nodded, but gasped as the black monster lunged out with a red lightning of some sort, attacking the Dark Magician, Blue Eyes, and White Dragon all at the same time, causing them all to fall over, severely weakened from the new and surprising attack.  
  
Priest Seto narrowed his eyes, studying the monster as it roared, the dragons and the magician trying their best to get back into an attacking position, determined not to let down their masters.  
  
"It doesn't seem like any Duel Monster I know of, but it's spiritual energy seems very much like that of an ancient duel monster..." he thought to himself. "Like...a Ka almost..."  
  
"No!" Yami cried as the huge beast stomped forward, reaching out its long, thin, pale purple fingers to grasp the Dark Magician, and kill him.  
  
***********  
  
"You...you can't possibly do this!" Yami Bakura protested, narrowing his brown eyes at Zurui as he backed up.  
  
She grinned, preparing another energy ball to throw at Yami Bakura.  
  
"But I can," she purred, almost as if she were talking to a child. "And the others, in the darkness, they've already faced the despair...the Despair from the Dark," she laughed. "The only living thing that's been with me through everything in this dimension."  
  
Yami Bakura raised an eyebrow. What she was talking about sounded quite familiar...  
  
************  
  
"Swords of Revealing Light!" A voice suddenly rang through the room, and Seto, Priest Seto, and Yami all turned around to see Yugi, his Millennium Puzzle glowing brightly as he held up the shiny magic card.  
  
Brightly glowing swords appeared all around the beast, freezing him in his tracks. The beast roared, trying to wriggle free from their binding grip, but it was useless. Yugi smirked, everyone else looking surprised.  
  
"Now, Kuribo! Multiply and attack!" Yugi declared, the brown and furry Ka of his partner's suddenly flying forward, becoming many Kuribos and bombarding themselves at the beast.  
  
"Aibou!" Yami cried, smiling.  
  
Yugi grinned, looking over at Yami and unable to feel a bit proud of himself.  
  
"Next time I won't underestimate you," Yami said apologetically, looking up at the black and red monster as he was bombarded with miniature bombs.  
  
"Amazing," Priest Seto said, watching the beast become immersed in the explosions, unable to move from the sword's bind.  
  
Seto nodded, recalling his weary Blue Eyes White Dragon for some much deserved rest. Priest Seto also recalled his White Dragon, and Yami likewise with the Dark Magician. The Kuribo Ka of Yami's came back to him, looking proud as his copies continued their onslaught.  
  
"Great!" Yugi said, grinning. "Now that beast is history!"  
  
*************  
  
Zurui began her final lunge at Yami Bakura when suddenly, in the middle of a bound toward the white-haired tomb robber, something inside of her felt as though it had torn. She skidded to a halt, feeling as though part of her had just died.  
  
"My...it...the Despair from the Dark..." she murmured angrily, her eyes narrowing in pain. "They...couldn't have killed it...they couldn't have defeated it...there's no way!"  
  
Yami Bakura raised an eyebrow as Zurui staggered backward, her crystal necklace still swirling the fog around inside.  
  
"Impossible..." she whispered, her eyes wide as a vague blue glow surrounded her once again.   
  
She glared at Yami Bakura, who was watching her with an odd expression on his face.  
  
  
  
"This isn't over," she whispered, narrowing her eyes in anger. "Not until I avenge my master!"  
  
With that, the ancient magician's apprentice vanished in a cloud of blue smoke, leaving Yami Bakura alone in the demolished battle-room. He blinked, looking at the spot where Zurui had been.  
  
"Is it really possible that an ancient girl has truly survived by living in another dimension?" Yami Bakura mused out loud, shoving his hands into his pockets as he turned absentmindedly to the door, his thoughts still on the close encounter he'd just had with Zurui. "Or is this...woman just an illusion, hiding behind another master, pulling the puppet strings...?"  
  
The white-haired man walked off down the stairs, still pondering on this latest mystery.  
  
  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter 14  
  
"^_^ REVIEW!!"  
  
And last chapter up tomorrow! ^_^ 


	15. Chapter Fifteen: Return

Chapter Fifteen: Return  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for reviewing! And this story pretty much flows directly into the next one, so the first chapter of that one should be up tomorrow. ^^ Title still pending at the minute, but you can bet it'll be full of action and suspense!  
  
"^^; Yeah. She's been plotting, trust me. We should be posting our first chapter of "Era of Darkness" our other ancient Egyptian story soon too. ^^ Anyway, here's the last chapter!"  
  
*************  
  
Chapter Fifteen: Return  
  
Suddenly, the black beast roared in agony, its red eyes turning yellow and its whole body suddenly becoming engulfed in a huge cloud of blue fog, much like the fog inside the crystal of Zurui's.  
  
Priest Seto blinked as the beast gave one last enormous yell before vanishing, leaving only a trail of smoke behind. Seto stepped forward slightly, the rod still extending in case it was a trick, but nothing seemed to be around them anymore.  
  
"It's gone," Yami declared, having been no longer able to sense its spiritual energy.  
  
Priest Seto nodded, narrowing his eyes, feeling drained from the battle. Seto, too, sighed, lowering the rod back down to his side as Kuribo squeaked once more before returning to Yami's soul room.  
  
"Good work, Yami," Yugi complimented his friend, who laughed, looking slightly embarrassed.  
  
"But you're the one who really saved the day, Yugi," he pointed out, looking down at the Swords of Revealing Light card that his reincarnate was still holding. "I thought you were too tired to summon more monsters, but you ended up coming up with a brilliant strategy."  
  
Yugi blushed, feeling flattered.  
  
"Well, it wasn't all that great," he murmured, rubbing the back of his neck modestly. "Besides, it used your Ka."  
  
Yami smiled, shaking his head. Seto looked over at Priest Seto who was lost in thought, trying to figure out more about the monster they'd just fought, although he wasn't getting very far on his own.  
  
"Are you okay?" Seto asked in a cold voice, not wanting to really show that his was slightly concerned.  
  
Priest Seto blinked, nodding.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine," he replied, eyeing the boy. "And yourself?"  
  
Seto looked away, the rod's glow brightening as a large whiteness starting from a distance started to come toward them, breaking away the darkness all around them.  
  
"I'm fine," Seto replied, raising an eyebrow at the white cloud of fog coming toward them. "What is that...?" he muttered, looking skeptically over at it.  
  
Yugi and Yami looked up from their conversation, narrowing their eyes at the whiteness.  
  
"I...don't know..." Yami murmured, putting his hand over his eyes to shield them from the light. "But...it's coming right toward us!"  
  
Yugi never got to reply as the white light suddenly surrounded them all, blinding them as a huge gust of wind blew by, and each felt their bodies seem to fly away with it in the whiteness.  
  
************  
  
  
  
Yugi sprang up in bed, sweating as he looked around his dark room, a little ray of white light coming in through the window from the crescent moon outside. Breathing hard, the boy looked around frantically.  
  
"Yami?!" he cried, looking down at the puzzle that was resting peacefully at his bedside, just where he'd left it before he'd gone to sleep the night before they'd woken up in the other dimension.  
  
"Yes, Yugi?" Yami replied calmly, appearing in spirit-form, TRUE spirit-form, not in another body, beside the table.  
  
Yugi narrowed his eyes, feeling as though time had sped up and he'd missed something.  
  
"Why are we..." Yugi muttered, looking around. "It's like we never even left and woke up in that dimension..." he murmured, glancing over at the clock, which read 2:03 AM.  
  
Yami nodded, looking seriously down at his friend.  
  
"Ah," he replied, biting his lip. "Perhaps time passed more slowly in the dimension..." he began, but Yugi cut him off.  
  
"And why did the monster just vanish and we suddenly appeared back in the REAL world in bed?!" Yugi pressed, confused.  
  
Yami sighed, thinking back to the monster's spiritual makeup. Just at Priest Seto had thought, he too had suspected something strange about that monster, like a link to another being.  
  
"It is possible..." Yami murmured, narrowing his eyes, the light from the moon glinting off the puzzle beside him. "That the monster we faced was Zurui's Ka," he explained. "When we defeated it, she felt herself weaken, and perhaps decided to eject us from her dimension."  
  
Yugi gulped, feeling uneasy.  
  
"So does that mean...she's still around?" he asked, looking worriedly up at Yami.  
  
"Zurui?" Yami asked, turning to look out the window. "I have a feeling she is still very much alive. But something puzzles me..." he murmured, lowering his gaze as he thought to himself.  
  
Yugi tilted his head to the side.  
  
"What's that?" he inquired, curious.  
  
Yami sighed, looking up at the moon outside through the window.  
  
"Why would this woman have an ancient Egyptian Ka if she were living in this modern world?" he asked, shrugging. "I suppose we won't know for a while, will we?"  
  
Yugi sighed, looking down at his bedding, knowing what his aibou meant by that.  
  
"We won't know until she strikes again," he murmured, gripping his sheet worriedly.  
  
************  
  
Seto blinked, sitting up in bed and looking around his darkened room. It was just as he had left it when he'd gone to bed...but why was he back there now? Priest Seto, in a spiritual form now, floated through the wall, looking confused as well as deep in thought.  
  
"We're back," Seto stated, blinking. "It's as though we were never ever there."  
  
Priest Seto nodded, narrowing his eyes.  
  
"That beast..." he murmured, thinking along the same lines as Yami. "It must have been Zurui's Ka, and when it was weakened, she had to throw everyone out in order to save herself."  
  
Seto nodded, pushing his covers off and standing up, thinking.  
  
"Because when a person's Ka dies, they die as well," he finished, looking up at the priest, who nodded.  
  
"Right," Priest Seto replied, looking around the room again. "Mokuba is fast asleep. Should we wake him?"  
  
Seto shook his head, turning on his lamp and walking over to the door.  
  
"No, we'll let him sleep," he replied, sighing with relief that his brother was all right. "I'm going to go check on him though," he added, wanting to make sure that Mokuba was truly there, and not still in the other dimension.  
  
The brown-haired boy, followed by the ancient high priest, walked down the hallway and slowly opened the door to his younger brother's room. Mokuba was curled up under his quilts, fast asleep. Seto smiled.  
  
Seto walked over and pulled up the covers over Mokuba's shoulders, and the black-haired boy stirred, rolling over and blinking sleepily up at his older brother.  
  
"Ni...niisama?" he murmured, trying to focus in on the person standing over him. "Are we...back? We're not in the weird...dimension?"  
  
Everything had suddenly changed so fast from the white room in Zurui's world to now back in the mansion in bed, it seemed almost as though the whole thing were a dream. Maybe it had been one...  
  
Seto shook his head.  
  
"No, we're really back home," he replied, smiling. "Now go back to sleep and get some rest, all right?"  
  
Mokuba smiled softly and rolled over when he realized he was clutching something in his hand. Blinking, he brought it up into the light from the moon where he gasped.  
  
Seto blinked, looking down at the shiny foil.  
  
"The Blue Eyes White Dragon card?" he asked, looking down at Mokuba, who nodded, holding it out to Seto.  
  
"Yeah..." he murmured, still shocked that everything had really happened, and the card in his hands proved it. "The Blue Eyes helped me a lot..." he murmured, sleeping as Seto took the card back. "It helped me save Pearl...and myself from Zurui's test thing..."  
  
Seto stared down at the card for a moment before tucking it into his pocket.  
  
"Thanks, niisama..." Mokuba murmured, smiling. "I love you."  
  
Seto smiled back.  
  
"I love you too," he replied sincerely.  
  
Priest Seto smiled from where he'd been watching. Everything had turned out all right after all, he thought to himself, glancing out the window of Mokuba's room. For now, at least, he added to himself, his smile fading as he realized that the Despair from the Dark hadn't completely died, which meant Zurui was still very much alive.  
  
The high priest had a feeling that they hadn't seen the last of Zurui.  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, standing outside in the Egyptian desert, Shadi held the Millennium Key in his hands, opening his eyes from his meditation. A man with dark skin and shoulder-length black hair stood beside him, a small set of shiny golden scales resting on the palm of his hand.  
  
"So, the chosen ones of the Millennium Items have succeeded in freeing themselves," Shadi murmured, narrowing his dark eyes.  
  
The man beside him nodded, looking down at the scales in his hands.  
  
"Ah," he agreed, having seen the same vision with the power of the Millennium Scales. "We should inform Bastet now, should we not?"  
  
Shadi nodded slowly, his face solemn.  
  
"We should and will," he replied, narrowing his eyes. "Tell me, did you sense something else while tapping into the powers of your Millennium Item?" he asked, looking over at the younger man.  
  
The man looked down at the scales, still not used to calling them "his" Millennium Item.  
  
"I sensed a dark force...unlike most of the others presences I've felt in the short time that I've possessed the scales," The man replied, narrowing his eyes in thought. "Do you think another dark force could be aiming at the Millennium Items?" he asked, looking over at Shadi quizzically.  
  
Shadi sighed, looking out into the distance.  
  
"Perhaps," he replied airily. "Or perhaps it is merely a dark force. Not every dark force will the chosen ones come into combat with, Karim."  
  
Karim nodded.   
  
"I know," he replied. "And I hope that they will not encounter it."  
  
"I agree," Shadi replied, turning around, the wind blowing the back of his white ropes back. "There are many other things the chosen ones need to accomplish. But come now."  
  
Karim nodded, slowly turning and following Shadi in the direction of the temple, still pondering about the dark force.  
  
************  
  
END OF STORY  
  
^_^! Finished!  
  
Red: Yeeep! XP Finally! ^^ Review, please. Our next story is going to be called "Power is in the Eye of the Beholder" and the first chapter should be up tomorrow or Thursday.  
  
Priest Seto: o_o Karim has a reincarnate too?!  
  
^-^;; Well, that's what it looks like, priest. ^_^! Anyway, until next time, thanks for reading and reviewing, and see you soon. XD 


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